AAHA Accreditation

The past couple of weeks have been very busy, but great.  In particular, my work has taken me to three practices that share a common distinction:  they are all AAHA accredited.

I'm speaking specifically about Cobble Hill Veterinary Clinic, Sayrebrook Veterinary Hospital (NJ) and Bloomsburg Veterinary Hospital (Pa).  Each of these practices is employed with talented, fun, driven and compassionate team members, but because they have undertaken the AAHA challenge to review their systems and make sure they are in line with the guidelines set forth by the experienced AAHA accreditation team; they have...what's the word?...framed?...underscored?...outlined? if you will their superiority.

Cobble Hill is the newest hospital to join the other distinguished practices in the US that enjoy the honor of accreditation.  In fact, I worked with them closely on refining their protocols to make sure they were in line with the standards set by AAHA.  The process was a tremendous learning experience for the entire team and one of the strongest rallying calls I know of to pull teams together and to highlight everyone's common interest in animal welfare and client well being.

Initially I dismissed the necessity of AAHA accreditation, but  Cobble Hill is the fourth practice I've traveled with on the accreditation journey and I leave the experience more convinced than ever of the process's benefits.  These standards stop mistakes, ensure premium client and patient care, protect team members and practice cultures and encourage personal and business growth.

Now that my eye is trained, I can immediately tell an AAHA accredited practice when I tour a hospital.  Their environment is simply better organized, better managed, cleaner, safer and more pleasant to be in.  No need to hang the fancy bronze AAHA plaque you can get when your practice finally achieves the AAHA distinction; your clients, vendors and future employees will see evidence of accreditation everywhere they look.  Really.

Why don't more hospitals take the AAHA challenge and benefit from this organization's tremendous experience and resources?  What do they have to fear?  To all my readers who have yet to lift the well-organized (and maybe daunting?) book of AAHA requirements and recommendations, can I please make a plea to try it?  I am telling you earnestly from my experience: I can think of nothing else that proves to be such a perfect tool to rally your entire team's interest and energy.  Even if you choose never to invite AAHA's experienced Practice Consultants to your practice (and what a disservice you would be doing yourself and your practice team if you didnt'...these people are here to HELP, not to pick you apart), I can assure you that the AAHA accreditations standards and recommendations are the perfect countdown checklist to your practice's blast-off to higher goals.