The American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s Board of Directors in January appointed a presidential task force to contemplate the organization’s broader policies regarding accreditation and evaluate the Standards for Accreditation of Sleep Disorders Centers as the role and weight of AASM accreditation has changed since the standards were revised last. President Alex Chediak, MD; Directors Larry Epstein, MD and David Bruce, MD, DDS; and Accreditation Committee Chair Sam Fleishman, MD composed the presidential task force and lent their expertise and knowledge.
The Standards for Accreditation establish requirements sleep disorders centers and sleep related breathing disorder laboratories must meet to receive accreditation, which is recognized as the gold-standard in the sleep community. As such, the task force completely revised the Standards for Accreditation with the objective of developing standards that are quantifiable, verifiable and completely objective. Specific standards address the following areas: structural, professional and human resource, clinical and technical as well as quality assurance methods.
The revised Standards for Accreditation are now available online for members to review; visit
www.aasm.org/resources/Accreditation/StandardsReview.pdf to download the document. Please note this version is a draft and does not replace, supersede or serve as a substitute for the existing Standards for Accreditation. A decision regarding adoption and implementation of this new version is to-be-determined and incumbent on further review.
The AASM is interested in feedback on the revised Standards for Accreditation, and invites all members to offer constructive comment. The task force will take all comments into account and consider feedback in a final revision of the Standards for Accreditation. Please send all comments to the attention of Dr. Chediak at achediak@aasm.org by June 30, 2008.
