UPEI's Health and Wellness Centre earns national accreditation after thorough review
‘It's a very rigorous process,’ says the centre’s manager
The Health and Wellness Centre at the University of Prince Edward Island is celebrating a significant milestone for the facility, having achieved full accreditation from Accreditation Canada.
Bonnie Lipton-Bos, the centre's manager, said it is the first standalone university health centre in Canada to receive this recognition.
The accreditation process took place over several days in December. A surveyor looked into various departments and assessed the centre against 15 national standards and more than 600 criteria.
"It allowed us to evaluate every part of our practice to ensure that we have protocols in place to guide our work, that we're following those protocols, and that we are putting patient care and safety first and foremost, always with a lens of quality improvement," Lipton-Bos told CBC News.
"It's a very rigorous process."
Standalone health centre
Unlike many university health clinics across Canada that operate under regional health authorities, UPEI's Health and Wellness Centre operates as a standalone facility, independent of Health P.E.I.
"That means that we create all of our practices, protocols, procedure for ourselves — and of course, with our larger university campus and the supports that we have in other departments," Lipton-Bos said.
It allowed us to evaluate every part of our practice to ensure that we have protocols in place to guide our work, that we're following those protocols, and that we are putting patient care and safety first.— Bonnie Lipton-Bos
The centre is led by nurse practitioners, with all appointments booked in advance. It has three nurse practitioners, a physician who visits campus twice a week, and a psychiatrist who comes twice a month.
In addition to general health care, Lipton-Bos said the centre provides specialized services such as gender-affirming care and ADHD diagnosis and monitoring.
Like an audit, with advice for improvement
Lipton-Bos said the accreditation process cost between $5,000 and $10,000.
"You can think about it like having a consultant come in to audit or assess your work, and so we get a detailed report with the surveyors' comments on our areas of strength, but also the areas where we could improve," she said.
Lipton-Bos said the report suggested improvements beyond primary care, such as policies related to campus-wide outbreak management.
The process has also given the centre a chance to learn best practices from other jurisdictions, both in Canada and around the world, she said.
"They share their insights and learning from all of their experiences to help us not just improve but strive for innovation."
With files from Jackie Sharkey