Some reflections from BCC’s Chief Operating Officer
We just finished a three-day virtual site visit with CARF international and EAGLE, BCC’s two national accreditation bodies. Seven reviewers (4 from CARF, 3 from EAGLE) from across the United States and Canada spent time making sure BCC was meeting the mark across 1,700 + different standards. These ranged from governance and leadership, to finance, to program operations, to client rights.
This was a re-accreditation visit for BCC. We get recertified every three years by CARF, and every four years by EAGLE. Due to the pandemic, we were not able to do our visit last year, so we worked with both CARF and EAGLE to complete this accreditation jointly between the two teams. We would usually welcome our reviewers onto campus for several days, but had to adapt to a virtual-only visit this go round. Lots of time spent on MS Teams!
So how did we do? Both EAGLE and CARF teams had their exit debriefs yesterday. These are unofficial, verbal downloads of what the reviewers will be putting in their reports. In both cases, we will not get the official report until CARF and EAGLE have both reviewed the site visit notes. BCC holds these accreditations to learn how we can improve and do better. There were some areas they recommended we adjust to better meet certain standards, but overall I am extremely pleased with how we did. We received compliments on the content and quality of our client and HR charts and even got some kudos on some things that BCC is doing that they are not seeing other organizations do in our space (especially in the areas of advocacy, state-level partnership to serve new populations, our alumni grant program, and the Caminos program).
At the end of the review, I’m proud to see we received perfect marks in the following categories!
- Leadership
- Governance
- Strategic Planning
- Financial Planning and Management
What happens next?
- In both cases, the reviewers make a recommendation up to CARF/EAGLE, who will then officially deliver our accreditation result.
- Once we get our official results, we’ll submit a Quality Improvement Plan (or Corrective Action Plan) to address any areas noted that we need to adjust in order to meet the standard.
I’m incredibly proud of our teams for the amazing work they do every day – and especially for how they came together this week to really showcase how BCC shines! Great job everyone!
– Kristian
Kristian Sekse is BCC’s Chief Operating Officer. One of his areas of responsibility is Quality Improvement (also called Quality Assurance), which is the team responsible for maintaining BCC’s audit, compliance, survey, reporting, and risk management programs. This team oversees BCC’s accreditations and certifications.