This month, we are hearing from one of our Clinical Members who had the privilege of participating in a site visit for a continuing accreditation review. I am pleased to present this perspective from Claudia Meyer. I encourage other Clinical Members who may be interested in participating in site visits to contact the chair of the accreditation committee in their regions.

Karrie Oertli, Chair, ACPE Accreditation Commission.

By Claudia Meyer

Earlier this year, I was presented with the opportunity to take part in an Accreditation Site Team Visit when our Regional Accreditation Chair put out a call for volunteers. I had never been involved in accreditation work, in fact, the only reference point I had for their work is that the CPE Center in the hospital where I work had undergone a five-year accreditation several years ago, and is scheduled to have its ten-year accreditation next year. But as I'm usually up for a challenge, and thought that participating would prepare me to assist our CPE Center for its review next year, I joined a site team. (I later found out that the phenomenon of joining a site team or participating on the Accreditation Commission to help prepare for one's own upcoming review is somewhat common).

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Deryck Durston

Managing Editor

The Accreditation Commission with the approval of the Board updated its Policies and Procedures Manual to meet Department of Education guidelines:

• During appeals of adverse accreditation decisions, if an appeal panel hearing is convened, an appellant may employ counsel to advise them or to make any presentation the appellant is permitted to make on its own during the appeal. Within 30 days of the decision, the appeal panel chair gives written notification of the panel's decision to the appellant with the basis for the result

• The Appeal pool will be composed of five members from each ACPE region, public members named by the ACPE Executive Director and others at the discretion of the ACPE Executive or Associate Director; appeal consultant and appeal panel are selected from this pool.
• Three member appeal panels will include at least one public member.

Before an adverse action decision is finalized, the center may seek review of new financial information if all the following conditions are met:

         i.            the financial information was unavailable to the center until after the decision subject to appeal was made.

       ii.            the financial information is significant and bears materially on the financial deficiencies identified by the Commission. The Accreditation Commission determines the significance and materiality.

      iii.            the only remaining deficiency cited by the Commission in support of a final adverse action decision is the center's failure to meet the ACPE standard pertaining to finances.

Corrections to the Actions of the Accreditation Commission at its November 2011 meeting:

Lutheran Services New York Alliance (LSNYA)in New York, NY was not given a notation for 300.1. They received no notations.

The Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling Vol 65, No 4 (2011) is available online.

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