Certification Decisions

Where certification requirements are met:

Programs meeting requirements can then market themselves as “ICCPR-certified”, and will receive their Certification certificate and other supporting marketing materials electronically to use as desired. Your name and that of your program will be added to ICCPR’s website for the duration of the certification term, and this will also be shared on ICCPR’s social media channels. You will also be listed in ICCPR Program Certification reports. You may be contacted by ICRR’s user sub-committee with an invitation to share best practices with other programs in areas where you program performs at very high quality (e.g., documents, webinar).  

Certified programs are expected to at least maintain their practices throughout the certification term. ICCPR may conduct periodic audits at any time during the certification period to ensure that the standards are still being met. This may include a site visit or a request for submission of materials related to certification standards.

Where certification requirements are not met:

Unfortunately, the fee is not returned if the program is not successful in meeting certification requirements.

Programs that are close to meeting the 70% standard and it is perceived they could potentially meet the standard can re-attempt to meet additional standards they could not when they have made the necessary improvements / remediation by emailing  iccpr.ProgCert@gmail.com , and providing the applicable documentation or once a mutually-agreed number of new patients is contributed to the registry such that new data entered subsequent to changes made following the site visit could be analyzed by the Secretary to determine whether some unmet standards are since met (note: another site visit may be required depending on the quality standard in question). Re-attempts can be made up to one year from the site visit. Again, ICRR’s user sub-committee is here to support you in your quality improvement efforts to achieve certification, and the Secretary can support you by answering questions around what documentation could be provided to document meeting specific standards. Once the re-attempt fee outlined above is paid, applicable materials will be considered by the site assessor and a co-chair, and a decision (or request for further information) provided within 3 weeks.  

Programs wishing to re-butt negative decisions may contact iccpr.ProgCert@gmail.com with the request and rationale (provide any supporting documentation; e.g., a certain standard is not relevant to their low-resource setting). The ICCPR Program Certification Steering Committee will review the correspondence as well as the Program Certification Assessment form for the site, and may correspond with the site assessor. They will either request further information or investigate before holding a vote, or render a decision based on majority vote within 4 weeks. A rationale supporting the reconsideration decision may or may not be provided. There is no cost for this process.

Note ICCPR will maintain the confidentiality of all applying programs, including results of the assessment. In future, reports on the certification program, descriptive statistics regarding program application success rates overall and proportion meeting each standard will be reported in aggregate only, with no program identifiable (or even country in those with few programs to maintain privacy).

Re-Certification

The aim of the re-certification process is to ensure services are continuing to maintain their high-quality service and where possible improving their service. Re-certification every 3 years of certified programs is optional, and can be requested an unlimited number of times. Note there may have been some changes to the process or standards, and programs will be expected to meet the policies in effect at the time of re-certification. Ten of the 13 standards must be met.

The ICRR Secretary shall be in touch 6 months prior to the 3-year anniversary of certification. It is the program’s responsibility to be aware of their certification expiration date, and meet the application deadline for re-certification regardless of whether expiration reminders from ICCPR have been received.

Process

Re-certification does not require current active participation in ICRR. Interested programs should review this quality indicator documentation guidance for information on how to provide evidence regarding the meeting of each standard before they begin the survey at the link below. For standard / indicator 6, this excel file must be completed as per the guidance provided. Alternatively, programs which are still actively contributing data to the registry (and there are no current issues with data quality) may elect to direct ICCPR to analyze their registry data to assess their re-certification eligibility in line with the initial certification process. Programs electing this option are directed to complete the initial certification application survey at the link on https://globalcardiacrehab.com/Program-Certification-Apply; in the last question 15, they should specify they are applying for re-certification.

Once they are ready to pay the re-certification fee of 70% as per your setting and program funding as specified at https://globalcardiacrehab.com/Program-Certification-Requirements, programs are directed to complete the re-certification survey at: https://yorkufoh.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b9JsIhVSA7dIjHw. The survey commences with: (A) contact information for your program, (B) confirmation of eligibility (including direction if there are issues with PayPal / payment), (C) quality standard documentation, and (D) end matter, including attestation. Instructions for going back to complete the survey at a later time are provided on the first page of the survey.

There is no virtual site visit required. However, if the site assessor perceives additional information or clarification is required, one may be requested and the re-attempt fee (see: https://globalcardiacrehab.com/Program-Certification-Requirements) shall apply. Upon review of submitted material by the steering committee, if all documentation is in alignment with the guidance, programs will be notified of a decision: (1) re-certified, (2) not certified or (3) more information required. In the latter instance, programs will be given up to four months to provide further documentation.

Programs that do not complete and meet the re-certification process requirements by the 3-year anniversary will be removed from ICCPR’s website. They will also be instructed to remove the ICCPR certificate, logo and associated certification marketing from their institutional materials; The program shall confirm this with ICCPR via email. Previously-certified programs may apply for re-certification at any time in future to re-instate certification in line with the above processes, however a virtual site visit will also be required; full initial certification fee shall apply.