ACHA Clinical Benchmarking Program

About the Clinical Benchmarking Program

A significant part of the American College Health Association's mission is to enhance its members' ability to advance the health of all students and the campus community. To meet this mission, ACHA, through its Benchmarking Committee, has developed a series of clinical benchmarking tools in response to many institutions' desire to have a means to benchmark their clinical quality care standards. The benchmarking measures have been based on input from members, other national and governmental health care organizations, and evidence-based literature.

Goals of the Clinical Benchmarking Program (CBP)


  • To identify areas and means of performance improvement
  • To understand the quality of care provided by member institutions for college students
  • To find areas of potential education and focus for ACHA initiatives to improve quality of care in college health
  • For ACHA and the CBP participants to compare quality provided by member organizations against community and national standards.

Why participate?

  1. Participating will give your institution a comparison to other institutions in the quality of care provided across various measures. You will be provided with a report comparing your scored results against the aggregate results of the other participating institutions.
  2. We believe that you can utilize this tool for accreditation purposes.
  3. The results will help ACHA discuss the high quality of care given by its member organizations in comparison to national quality databases (like HEDIS).
  4. The only costs for this pilot are staff time collecting data. The inaugural implementation of the CBP Acute Care Module and the Screening and Prevention Module are offered to ACHA Institutional Members free of charge. (Note that fees may be required to participate in future implementation of these and additional modules as they are introduced.)

This is a voluntary program that will provide a better understanding of the clinical practice on various college campuses. While self-analysis can sometimes be a difficult task, we encourage those partaking in the Clinical Benchmarking Program to do so with a relatively critical lens. Those who are most honest with their self-assessments stand to benefit the most in terms of ongoing improvement processes. Our hope is that understanding how the clinical quality measures on your campus compare to those of similar institutions will assist your health center and university officials in decision-making for resources and programs for improvement.

The Benchmarking Committee will continue to evaluate further measures of clinical quality for additional modules.

How do we participate in the CBP?

The CBP has been pilot tested over the last few years and this marks the inaugural implementation of the Acute Care Module and the Screening and Prevention Module. To mark the kickoff of this important service, ACHA is pleased to offer participation in these modules of the CBP free of charge to ACHA Institutional Members. (Not an ACHA Institutional Member? See information about joining here.) Members can opt to participate in the Acute Care Module and/or the Screening and Prevention Module.

All ACHA Institutional Member RMI’s will receive an email containing a link to the CBP Data Entry Tools for each Module. The links are unique for each institution and cannot be used by other schools. Please refer to the invitation email for your unique links.

What follows are detailed instructions and worksheets to help you prepare and organize your information BEFORE submitting your responses into the CBP Data Entry Tool.

Screening and Prevention Module: Allergies, Influenza, Tobacco, and Depression 

This module of the CPB includes Screening and Prevention: documentation of medication allergies, influenza vaccination, screening for tobacco, and screening for depression. 

       Screening and Prevention Instructions and Worksheet

Acute Care Module: Ottawa Ankle Rules, Pharyngitis, and Bronchitis 

This module  of the CBP includes three measures for Acute Care: Application of Ottawa Ankle Rules for acute ankle injury, appropriate treatment for pharyngitis, and avoidance of antibiotic treatment for adults with acute bronchitis. Participation in all three portions of the Acute Care Module are required – participation in some portions, but not others is not permitted.

        Ottawa Ankle Rules Instructions and Worksheet

               Pharyngitis Instructions and Worksheet       

               Bronchitis Instructions and Worksheet         

Results

We hope to have a minimum of 100 respondents and plan to present the data at the 2018 ACHA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

It is important to note that ACHA releases the results of individual programs only to participating organizations. ACHA may utilize aggregate data in assisting ACHA's future national programming priorities and as a means to advocate for its members quality of care with accreditation and governmental agencies. The data provided by your institution is confidential and compared to others only in aggregate.

Presentations

Clinical Benchmarks Screening & Prevention Acute Care 2018 [pdf]


Report from the ACHA Benchmarking Committee 2014: Clinical Benchmarking and Beyond [pdf]

This is a summary of the 2014 Clinical Benchmarking Survey, Part I, and was presented at the ACHA 2014 Annual Meeting.

Additional presentations will be posted as they become available.