Certification

An “Organization” is an entity that provides health care, whether a government, a health system, a hospital or a clinic. The “Organization” that is certified is the overarching legal entity. An “Organization” may have many sites of care. Each site must meet the criteria for certification.

Certified Grand-Aides Organizations are:

• Organizations for whom Grand-Aides work such as a health system, clinic or hospital.
• Governments for whom Grand-Aides work directly

Only organizations certified by Grand-Aides, LLC may employ Grand-Aides and Grand-Aides Supervisors.

Certification process
In order to become certified, an organization must demonstrate:

1. Adequate programmatic support, facilities and personnel. Organizations must document appropriate infrastructure for each site where Grand-Aides are supervised (e.g. clinic, hospital), including written procedures for how Grand-Aides will answer calls, the name of the primary supervisor and arrangements for coverage, procedures for referral by the nurse supervisor and Grand-Aide, appropriate methods for incorporating Grand-Aides calls and visits into the medical record, as well as documenting sufficient providers willing to have Grand-Aides involved in the care of their patients. The program must also have written policies, procedures and job descriptions, a written quality assurance program for patient care including patient confidentiality.
   1. There must be adequate numbers of patients at each site with diagnoses appropriate to the training and continued employment of the Grand-Aides
      1. The estimated numbers must be documented as well as the projected number of calls/visits per Grand-Aide per year
2. Adequate training of one class of supervisors (see section on “How training works”)
3. Adequate training of one class of Grand-Aides (see section on How training works”)
4. Every organization must employ at least one Supervisor (certified by Grand-Aides, LLC) who devotes at least 50% time to direct Grand-Aide supervision and may supervise up to 10 Grand-Aides depending upon the workload.
5. Each organization must have at least 3 Grand-Aides (certified by Grand-Aides, LLC); at least one Grand-Aide must be full-time.
6. Certification is awarded at the beginning of the program before the first patient is seen, and lasts for one year. 
7. Yearly recertification is required.

Confidentiality Before receiving program materials, the organization and each site will be required to sign a statement that the program (or subsidiaries or derivative program or employees or acquaintances of employees) will not use any materials and will not duplicate materials or sell / give them to others. If the organization is no longer certified, all materials must be returned to Grand-Aides, LLC and may not be used. The materials are all copyrighted.