PHAB Accreditation: Simplifying Step 3 (Document Selection & Submission)

Learn how ClearPoint can make the process for PHAB accreditation easier.
PHAB Accreditation: Simplifying Step 3 (Document Selection & Submission)
Learn how ClearPoint can make the process for PHAB accreditation easier.

For healthcare organizations, undertaking the PHAB accreditation process is a big endeavor. It’s a complex journey that requires a lot of hard work and commitment, but the payoff is earning a coveted designation that helps facilities grow and improve.

We previously wrote about the overall PHAB accreditation process, but wanted to spend more time breaking down what many consider to be the most demanding of the seven steps: Step 3, Document Selection and Submission.

Putting Technology In Play For PHAB Step 3

After a health department’s application is approved by PHAB, the organization has up to one year to submit the required documentation to prove conformity with each of PHAB’s standards and measures. This third step is unquestionably one of the most time-consuming and critical parts of the process—it’s often at this point that organizations get a gut check as to whether they’re ready to take on PHAB accreditation.

To get (and stay) organized with the PHAB document selection and submission process, you’ll need technology that’s built to handle these exact types of functions. For example:

  1. Many of PHAB’s accreditation requirements state that organizations must demonstrate continuous data tracking and data-driven decision making. It’s clearly unrealistic for this to be a manual process. You need software that not only tracks your data as required, but also creates the documentation needed as proof of compliance with different measures.
  2. PHAB also mandates that documentation adhere to standard formatting. Technology can streamline the process and save you from reinventing the wheel for each document. You need a system that can create any format for one domain, standard, and measure, and then duplicate it across your account.
  3. Once you’ve tracked and collected data, you need a system that makes it simple to compile all the required information into a single report. It should just take a few clicks to pull together the domains, standards, and measures you need for your complete documentation packet to meet accreditation requirements.
  4. When you hit the five-year mark and need to apply for PHAB reaccreditation, you don’t want to start from scratch. Software can “remember” the formatting, descriptions, and proofs from the first round of accreditation, allowing you to simply update the data to be ready to reapply.

ClearPoint’s system has helped many organizations manage the complexities of PHAB accreditation, with great success. Below, we’ve summarized how our platform can support you and make the PHAB’s document selection and submission process easier.

How ClearPoint Helps Simplify PHAB Step 3

1. Tracking & Using Data

Tracking and using data relates to these two PHAB accreditation standards:

  • Standard 1.2: “Collect and maintain reliable, comparable, and valid data that provide information on conditions of public health importance and on the health status of the population.”It’s simple and much more realistic to track and create proof of data when you use one system for everything. ClearPoint makes data collection and maintenance easy with multiple options for automatic data uploads and a user-friendly interface.
  • Standard 1.3: “Analyze public health data to identify trends in health problems, environmental public health hazards, and social and economic factors that affect the public’s health.”With ClearPoint, it’s easy to identify trends and analyze linkages with potential mitigating factors. You can build custom dashboards like the one below showing trend data:
Public health findings - PHAB accreditation dashboard
  • This data can easily be pulled into a report to not only prove you met this standard, but also that you’re using the information to make data-driven decisions. Plus, you can use dashboards to track the actual initiative of reaccreditation with dashboards in ClearPoint.

If you’re currently managing your data in Excel, don’t worry. With ClearPoint’s Data Loader, you can upload information you’re already tracking into our system and streamline your reporting instantly. Moving data from Excel into ClearPoint also solves any version control issues or formatting headaches you’ve had previously. ClearPoint serves as your master knowledge base, and building professional-looking reports takes just a few clicks.

2. Creating Standard Formats

PHAB specifies the format it wants organizations to use for each domain, standard, and measure page. Without a quick way to create and duplicate these formats, you could spend long hours trying to structure these detail pages correctly. ClearPoint provides that easy solution. With user-friendly drag-and-drop functionality, you can quickly build a page for each domain, standard, and measure, and then pull them into any report as needed.

These pages are interactive and allow you to drill down to get more detail. You also have the ability to upload attachments, which makes it simple to track other collateral that must be included as proof of meeting a requirement. For example, you can replicate detail pages for reports easily in ClearPoint like this:

  • Domain:
PHAB domain page
  • Standard:
PHAB standard page
  • Measure:
PHAB measure page


*See enlarged images and how the drill-down functionality works in this HTML report.

If you need to duplicate a page for another standard or even for reaccreditation, it’s effortless. Any layouts you create in ClearPoint can be standardized so you don’t have to build each page from scratch, but rather can have the fields ready to be filled in on each page.

3. Compiling Information

As you navigate all of PHAB’s accreditation requirements, you’ll need to pull information together in various reports. If reporting is complex and time consuming, it makes your accreditation goal all that much harder.

With ClearPoint, you can create a report for the actual accreditation process, but also reports that are required to fulfill the standards and measures. For example, Measure 1.3.2 states, “Provide statewide public health data to various audiences on a variety of public health issues at least annually.” ClearPoint’s easy report generation allows you to create briefing books and web-based HTML reports that can be customized to suit different audiences. Reports, dashboards, and other relevant information can be easily distributed to internal teams or published externally. Reporting is smooth and painless, allowing you to focus on sharing the information versus pulling it all together.

4. Getting Reaccredited

PHAB accreditation is a long, involved process and it may seem like no time has passed at all when it comes time to reapply. With ClearPoint, the reaccreditation process you’ll initiate every five years is much, much easier because all your framework, formats, and templates have been preserved. The detail pages you need are already set up, and you simply need to add the latest data, which you’re likely already collecting in ClearPoint to meet the “continuous data tracking” requirement.

The PHAB accreditation process is difficult for good reason—healthcare facilities must demonstrate dedication and professionalism to achieve this designation, which ultimately contributes to advancing their quality and performance overall. ClearPoint’s strategy software can help every step of the way, particularly with the pivotal document selection and submission process. For more information or to see a demo, contact us.

The Complete PHAB Accreditation Workbook
The Complete PHAB Accreditation Workbook
The Complete PHAB Accreditation Workbook
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MRA
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PHAB Accreditation: Simplifying Step 3 (Document Selection & Submission)

Sean Callison

Vice President of Sales & BBQ Master

Sean is the Vice President of Sales at ClearPoint. He leads the Sales department and focuses on developing impactful, consultative sales teams.