How to Apply & Process to Confirm Eligibility

Applications are accepted at any time. Programs can expect the certification decision process to take approximately 3 months from receipt of application.

Ensure at all times that any patient information is not identifiable (i.e., black out name, date of birth, address etc.). Current information should be provided.

1.  Pay the applicable fee to https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/iccpr (programs having trouble paying via paypal can contact the ICCPR Treasurer at iccpr.treasurer@gmail.com)

2a. Registry stream: provide the below information and materials at this link: https://redcap.sydney.edu.au/surveys/?s=KRR979JDXRHKL4WX

(a) express your interest in applying. Provide your full name, the program/ institution name (including email for the program), program / institutional website if available) and country.

(b) attach a CRFC professional completion certificate for one of your team members (as per  https://globalcardiacrehab.com/Certification)

(c) confirm that you meet program inclusion criteria from the registry protocol here https://globalcardiacrehab.com/resources/Documents/ICRR%20Benchmarking_Protocol_v4-2.pdf.

(d) provide at least 2 professions job descriptions and their regulatory college membership or equivalent (individuals who can be available during the site visit);

(e) specify program funding source (preferably providing evidence of no private funding if applicable), AND (g) confirming that the applicable fee has been paid.

Programs can describe any quality-related changes to the program that may have been made since completion of the ICRR on-boarding survey which is used to evaluate certification candidacy. They can also state the range of months of pre and post-program data they wish considered if they have engaged in quality improvement activities since joining the ICRR.

If you would like to request a virtual site assessment in a language other than English, please specify the language; we will see if we can identify a suitable site assessor (no guarantees).

2b. Non-registry stream: Provide the above information at this link: https://redcap.sydney.edu.au/surveys/?s=FNLF7NFJNPXH4JCX, including documentation for each quality standard, as per the guidance document found on https://globalcardiacrehab.com/Program-Certification-Decisions and this excel file.

3. Program Certification Secretary will:

a. Confirm with ICCPR payment was received, and if yes

b. Confirm all needed information is received. If not, the program will be contacted to secure it. If yes, the secretary will:

For registry stream applicants only: 

c. review the ICRR data completeness report (should be minimal variables in red denoting <50% completion, and particularly at post-program assessment variable completion rate should not be lower than the average for all programs); annual assessment not applicable), and checking with the ICRR research sub-cttee co-chair and /or statistician for any outstanding data quality issues (e.g., based on audits of internal consistency of data, representativeness as per data quality policy here),

d.  and collate the number of participants with post-program / progress responses (in specified time frame if applicable as per 2a), and the range in number of months over which this is provided. 

i.  Programs may be asked to review data completeness or follow-up with further patients before the process proceeds

e.  If there are no data issues and the patient minimums are met, the ICRR secretary shall review responses to ICRR program survey (and any corresponding updates in application email), and document for which program-level quality standards the program meets or does not meet certification standards preliminarily in the Program Certification Assessment Form

i. If the program-level mandatory standards are not met, the ICRR secretary will inform the applying program the reason their application cannot proceed, providing 2 weeks for a response with reconsideration request. If no response is received the application will be considered denied and complete.

f. If the mandatory program-level standards appear to be met, the ICRR secretary will review the site’s ICRR patient-level data, and using pre-specified syntax, check whether each patient-level quality standard is met or not met, and report value.

g. Then the secretary will send an email to the applicant, cc’ing the Certification Program committee co-chair for Assessment Oversight, confirming receipt of payment, and stating whether each quality standard is met, using the Program Certification Assessment form (pre-site visit column). Note it may be some weeks from application to receipt of email if all materials are received, as the program certification initial assessment unfolds through all steps as outlined above.

i.  If the 3 mandatory and 70% of the quality standards are met preliminarily, the secretary shall invite a virtual site Certification Assessor from Steering and sub-committees as well as ICCPR Program Certification committee members (consideration will be given to language as well as time zone, and any conflicts of interest will be ruled out including no assessors from the same country),  as recommended by the Program Certification Assessment Oversight co-Chair, and arrange a mutually-convenient time for the 2-hr site visit. A calendar invite shall be sent with meeting link for the program to test in advance (confirm with us all the technology requirements are met before the site visit).

 ii.  If 70% are not met, the program has up to 2 weeks to provide applicable documentation that program-level quality standards are currently met, and/or provide a quality improvement plan to meet the patient-level indicators with a request for reconsideration at a pre-specified future date (at no additional cost).