The ABA Verification Committee has made several changes this year to clarify the verification process and ensure transparency and user-friendliness for participating burn centers and new centers interested in becoming verified.
Pre-Review Questionnaire (PRQ) & Verification Program Timeline
This includes having a sample pre-review questionnaire (PRQ) available on the ABA website to help new centers with the verification process. We also published a timeline describing the expectations of the burn center, the ABA office, site reviewers and the Verification Committee at each step of the process, along with expected deadlines for that step. We expect this will increase clarity and transparency and enable all parties to hold ourselves accountable to a timely verification process.
Conflict of Interest Definitions
Definitions of potential conflict of interest between burn centers and site reviewers have been re-written and will be posted on the ABA website; during the verification process both the burn center and site reviewers are given the opportunity to notify the ABA of a conflict of interest and request a change be made, if necessary.
Evaluation Form
A confidential evaluation form on the verification process has also been added; we ask burn centers to please give us their feedback after the site review, so we can continue to improve the service we provide. We are proud of our role in helping burn centers maintain the highest quality of care for burn patients and providing independent verification of centers that reach this standard; we hope these changes will make the process smoother for all.
Type 1 and Type 2 Criteria
The ABA Verification Committee recently updated the Type 1 and Type 2 criteria for verification; the updated list is now available online at the ABA website and will go into effect for all centers starting the verification process in 2019. The changes reflect a focus on ensuring the burn center has a strong performance improvement process and structure, adequate, well-trained personnel working in a true multi-disciplinary fashion across the spectrum of burn injury care, from pre-hospital EMS to rehabilitation and work/school reintegration. There has been a move away from mandating requirements of the physical space not directly related to patient care, and consideration of alternative reporting structure of burn center personnel, recognizing the wide variation in the healthcare systems within which our burn centers operate. The focus is on ensuring burned patients are receiving high quality care within a center designed to provide solid support for the process; there will not be a penalty for minor mechanistic variations in how this is achieved.
This year the Verification Committee will work on updating the guidelines for pediatric verification, and modifying the PRQ to increase clarity and reduce redundancy. We will keep you posted as these changes take effect!
By: Sharmila Dissanaike, MD, FACS, FCCM, Texas Tech University Health Science Center, Lubbock, TX
ABA Verification Committee Chair
