VHA Inc. Renews its Accreditation as Provider of Interprofessional Continuing Education for Healthcare Teams Through 2020

IRVING, Texas, Sept. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- VHA Inc. today announced it renewed accreditation for its continuing education program from The Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education^TM program, a collaboration of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) through July 2020.

"Through our continuing education program, VHA is helping clinicians in variety of roles close the gap between current practices and leading practice to produce better patient care and outcomes," said VHA Executive Vice President Colleen Risk. "We are committed to helping our members by providing them with the expertise and training needed to drive exceptional performance in their delivery of care, clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction."

VHA has been offering continuing education programming to its member hospitals for more than 25 years. In 2013, VHA hosted a total of 720 Continuing Education activities through face-to-face, satellite TV and Web-based programming that awarded 16,632 CE hours to 8,951 attendees.

With the joint accreditation initiative, the ACCME, the ACPE and the ANCC seek to assure the public that health care teams receive continuing education that is designed to be independent, free from commercial bias, based on valid content and effective in improving the quality and safety of care delivered by the team.

About VHA Inc.

VHA Inc. is a national network of not-for-profit health care organizations working together to improve performance and efficiency in clinical, financial and operational management. Since 1977, when VHA established the first hospital membership organization, the company has applied its knowledge in analytics, contracting, consulting and network development to help members and customers achieve their strategic objectives. In 2013, VHA delivered $2.2 billion in savings and additional value to members. Serving approximately 5,000 health system members and affiliates, VHA represents more than a quarter of the nation's hospitals. VHA also serves more than 118,000 non-acute health care customers enterprise-wide. VHA is based in Irving, Texas, and has 12 regional offices across the U.S. VHA, together with UHC, owns Novation, a supply chain company, and aptitude^TM, the health care industry's first online direct contracting market. VHA also owns Provista, a supply chain company serving the non-acute market as well as hospitality, education and corporate markets. For more information, visit www.vha.com and follow us on Twitter (@VHAInc).

About Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™

Launched in 2009, Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education is a collaboration of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Joint Accreditation promotes interprofessional continuing education specifically designed to improve interprofessional collaborative practice in healthcare delivery. A leading model for interprofessional collaborative practice, Joint Accreditation establishes the standards for education providers to deliver continuing education planned by the healthcare team for the healthcare team. This innovation promotes interprofessional education that leads to improved healthcare delivery and better patient outcomes. Joint Accreditation enables providers to achieve distinction from three leading healthcare continuing education accreditors; increase operational efficiency, saving time, money, and resources; provide continuing education for physicians, pharmacists, or nurses separately or together; and improve collaboration and reduce hierarchies among healthcare professions. Jointly accredited continuing education providers must meet rigorous standards for educational quality and independence–including the ACCME Standards for Commercial Support^SM: Standards to Ensure Independence in CME Activities. With Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education, the ACCME, the ACPE, and the ANCC seek to assure the public that healthcare teams receive education that is designed to be independent, free from commercial bias, based on valid content, and effective in improving the quality and safety of care delivered by the team.

SOURCE VHA Inc.