All of us at Radius are committed to providing the highest quality services to the children, youth, and families that we serve. We truly believe that quality improvement is a continuous process and that there is always room for improvement. This is what first led us on the road to becoming an accredited organization in 2018.
In our last newsletter, we were excited to report that in November 2019, Radius successfully achieved the Primer Award Status with Accreditation Canada. The Accreditation Primer was the first step in our accreditation journey and involved us working to meet over 70 standards in key areas such as strategic planning, governance, service delivery, communications, human resources, ethics, and risk management.
Our team at Radius have now experienced first-hand the value of accreditation and, the entire team has been working hard to prepare for the more comprehensive Accreditation Canada Qmentum Program and our next on-site survey in June 2022. The Qmentum program will require us to meet approximately 400 standards in four main areas including: Governance, Child & Family Services, Infection Prevention & Control (IPAC) and Leadership.
An Accreditation Steering Committee has been established and we are currently in Phase 1 of our workplan, focused on meeting the Required Organizational Practices and High Priority standards. Sub-committees comprised of management and staff have been created and are carefully examining whether current policies, and practices are sufficient to meet the rigorous Accreditation Canada standards. Newly drafted this month is an Immunization Policy, a Communicable Disease Policy, an updated Hand Hygiene Policy and a policy to support acquisition of our therapy dog called, Radius Unconditional Furry Friend (RUFF) Program Policy, to name just a few!
To further strengthen and build our model of client centred care and partnerships with clients and families we will be welcoming them to join a Client, Caregiver and Family Advisory Council. We are hoping to launch this new initiative in June 2021! Through engaging with our clients and families and having them provide feedback across all areas of our operations we can ensure that their voices are represented in the fabric of all that we do.
We would like to sincerely thank the entire Radius team for their dedication and helping us move towards another successful accreditation milestone in 2022. Each and every one of our staff have taken on a special project or initiative to ensure we are meeting the highest standards of care and continuously improving.