Avmed Health Plan Awarded Full Accreditation by the Joint Commission On Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.GAINESVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 19, 1998--AvMed Health Plan, Florida's largest and oldest HMO HMO health maintenance organization. HMO n. A corporation that is financed by insurance premiums and has member physicians and professional staff who provide curative and preventive medicine within certain financial, , has achieved a full three-year accreditation accreditation, n a process of formal recognition of a school or institution attesting to the required ability and performance in an area of education, training, or practice. from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, n.pr the United States body that accredits healthcare organizations. Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO/TJC), n. . In December 1997, AvMed had also earned the highest level of accreditation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance National Committee for Quality Assurance Medical practice A private, not-for-profit organization which has become the leading accreditor of managed care plans; in site visits, NCQA reviewers evaluate a managed care plan in terms of quality management, physicians' (NCQA NCQA National Committee on Quality Assurance, see there ), making AvMed one of only a few HMOs nationally to have received full accreditation from both quality organizations. The Joint Commission was formed in 1951, and is dedicated to improving the quality of the nation's health care through voluntary accreditation. For AvMed, the accreditation process was conducted by physicians and managed health care experts and involved intensive on-site and off-site evaluations of AvMed's diverse health care providers. The evaluations were conducted between December 15, 1997 and April 6, 1998. Accreditation by the Joint Commission was effective as of April 7, 1998, and continues into April, 2001. "The standards are intended to stimulate continuous, systematic and organization-wide improvement in the network's performance and the outcomes of care," said Gina Val Zimmermann, M.S., executive director, Network Program, Joint Commission. "Accreditation demonstrates AvMed Health Plan's commitment to providing high quality care." To achieve accreditation, AvMed was required to meet standards addressing the rights and responsibilities of persons enrolled in the network; organization ethics ethics, in philosophy, the study and evaluation of human conduct in the light of moral principles. Moral principles may be viewed either as the standard of conduct that individuals have constructed for themselves or as the body of obligations and duties that a ; providing a continuum of care; educating and communicating with enrollees; leadership; human resources The fancy word for "people." The human resources department within an organization, years ago known as the "personnel department," manages the administrative aspects of the employees. ; management of information; and improving network performance. The sites where care is delivered, such as hospitals, doctors' offices and outpatient facilities, must also demonstrate that they are in compliance with the standards set by the Joint Commission. Accreditation is a voluntary process where the Joint Commission conducts intensive on-site evaluations of the multi-faceted services offered by the health care provider, then assesses whether the health care organization complies with national standards. "This was certainly a true team effort," said James Moffat James Moffat (born 1922 in Australia, died 1993 in England), was an author who wrote under several pen names. He produced many pulp novels for the United Kingdom publishing house New English Library during the 1970s. , M.D., AvMed's group vice president of medical affairs. "We are now one of very few HMOs in the country that has full three-year accreditation from both the NCQA and the Joint Commission, a fact that should make all of us here at AvMed very proud of our company and what it stands for." AvMed maintains regional offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale Fort Lauderdale (lô`dərdāl), residential, commercial, and resort city (1990 pop. 149,377), seat of Broward co., SE Fla., on the Atlantic coast; settled around a fort built (c.1837) in the Seminole War, inc. 1911. , Tampa, Orlando, Gainesville, and Jacksonville. AvMed serves the health care needs of nearly 400,000 members and contracts with close to 8,000 private physicians and 126 hospitals throughout the state. To learn more about the health benefits offered by AvMed Health Plan, please call 1-800-432-6676.
CONTACT: AvMed Health Plan, Gainesville
Peggy Prichard, 352/337-8606
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