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Every morning, young children traumatized by abuse and neglect walk through the doors of The Children’s Place to benefit from the many services offered to them and their families. These children come to know that when they arrive at TCP each day, they can feel safe, nurtured and that someone cares about them. They know nothing about the word accreditation and how the agency’s accreditations are directly connected to the quality of services they experience on their path to healing.
Last November, The Joint Commission (formerly the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations or JCAHO) spent two intensive days at The Children’s Place evaluating the agency’s performance against hundreds of standards. These standards address all areas of organizational functioning including client care, information management, human resources, quality improvement, infection control, environment of care and leadership. The site visit reinforced the belief of staff and the Board of Directors that quality services are provided each day within a high functioning organization. The surveyor shared during her visit that the agency was a doing a “truly excellent job of meeting national standards.” The Children’s Place was granted full accreditation status in January 2008 for a period of three years. Since 1989, the agency has sought and been granted accreditation status under the stringent qualifications set by the Joint Commission.
The Children’s Place is committed to providing the highest quality services possible and national accreditation is one means of ensuring that. Accreditation standards and the related agency policies and practices ensure that the highest standards are achieved on a consistent basis. In her recent site visit to the agency, the Joint Commission surveyor observed that staff had a “passion for the children” that was evident in their “tremendous commitment and compassion.” It is the passion and commitment of each individual member of staff that elevates our services from good to high quality. The children who enter the doors of The Children’s Place may not know what the agency’s accreditations mean but they benefit every day in many ways from our accreditations by both The Joint Commission and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
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