Jessica Klinkenberg
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 11, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - A few little details could mean the difference between being accredited or not for Aven Manor.

And for the fourth time in a row they've received three years of accreditation for their facilities.

A national organization called the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation offers tests, speaks with residents and their families, and checks out the facility from top to bottom, giving its seal of approval to hospitals, clinics and long-term care facilities in Canada. It found Aven Manor in tip-top-shape.

"What it means is that we're up to par with the standards right across Canada," said Greg Debogorski, the chief executive officer of Aven Manor.

"The lady who came up to do the accreditation said we were second-to-none in Canada."

Going through the voluntary evaluation is "one of the ways for us to see what we need to do," he said.

It takes a year of preparing documents, answering questionnaires and getting focus groups together to prepare for the evaluation.

Lynda Koe, resident care co-ordinator at Aven Manor, said she has taken part in all four of the evaluations, and found this one the toughest.

"They had changed their standards, there was a lot more information required on safety," she said.

"You need to prove to them that safety is of the utmost importance."

So this meant putting together more documents.

"That took quite a bit of time (to do)," she said.

She also said it was good to have someone from outside of the community come in to do the accreditation.

"In a small place like this you know everyone. They have a lot more experience and they can look at us on a national level."

Part of the accreditation process involved splitting staff into five different groups: environment, information, human resources, leadership and partnership.

Those five groups then needed to assess those areas for the organization before the evaluation takes place.

Though not perfect, Aven Manor has only a few things to fix, as recommended by the evaluators. If they don't, then their accreditation could be revoked, Debogorski said.

Specifically, Aven Manor has to provide more details on client safety in the long-term care facility in their mandate.

Debogorski said that they've already put the motion in to have that done as soon as possible.

The accreditation is helpful for people who are looking at facilities for their parents or grandparents he said.

"It informs the community about what you're doing," he said.

"It helps you be proactive."