January 31, 2002

ORCA ALERT # 9:

ORCA Compendium and HRPP Accreditation “Scoring” Update

A new version of the ORCA Compendium of regulations, policies standards and guidance related to human research protections is now available for use on the ORO website in the Products section.  It contains a full set of materials central to human research protection, fully referenced with hyperlinks.

Please note that this newly posted online Compendium is updated from the Compendium distributed on CD-ROM last fall. The CD-ROM included version 1.0 of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) “VA Human Research Protection Program Accreditation Standards” issued in August, 2001.  Since that time, version 1.1 of the NCQA standards was released. Therefore, if you are using the Compendium as a primary source of information about the NCQA standards, I advise you to use the online Compendium.

The elements of the NCQA standards are unchanged in version 1.1, but the scoring methodology for some of the elements has been adjusted. For these elements, it is no longer necessary for the element to have been fulfilled for an entire year prior to the visit for any credit to be given for the purpose of accreditation. Partial credit may be given if the VAMC can demonstrate that the element has been fulfilled for part of the preceding year. As you prepare for an accreditation visit you may want to be aware of which elements will be scored this way.

Specifically and to emphasize:

The NCQA accreditation standards for Human Research Protection Programs have not been changed.  It is the scoring of certain standards that has been changed.

If you have not done so already, I urge you to go to http://www.ncqa.org/Programs/QSG/VAHRPAP/vahrpap.htm and download version 1.1 of the NCQA standards.  If you have any additional questions about the NCQA accreditation program, please contact the Office of Research and Development or the National Committee for Quality Assurance (customersupport@ncqa.org or (888) 275-7585).