North Carolina Student Community Health Alliance (NCSCHA)Credentialing
To insure that health care services delivered in North Carolina’s school health centers is comprehensive and of high quality, the North Carolina Division of Public Health through the School Health Unit developed a Credentialing process that involves centers’ adhering to Quality Assurance Standards and providing Evidence of Performance. These Standards encompass not only the provision of comprehensive physical and mental health services, including nutrition therapy and education, but also community partnerships, records management, parental involvement, patient and parent consents, advisory boards, satisfaction surveys, and a number of other identified organizational components.
A combination of written proofs and on-site visits by program professionals is part of the Credentialing process. Once centers become credentialed, they are monitored in a reporting schedule. Centers are required to go through a re-Credentialing process every three years. The Credentialing components may serve as a guide for starting new centers; and once established, centers may apply to become credentialed through the School Health Unit.
Not only does being credentialed provide advantages to the centers in receiving direct reimbursement for appropriate Medicaid services and increased potential for funding dollars, but parents and the community are also assured that their children are receiving high quality, comprehensive health care.
This section of the web site highlights valuable information designed to assist you in beginning the process of creating and maintaining an exceptional school based or school linked health center. The information has been into general topics of interest:
- Administration - Basic information about the NC Department of Health and Human Services credentialing guidelines as well as links to valuable forms and tools that can be adapted for individual center use.
- Clinical - An overall description of the clinical component of credentialing including multiple resources such as useful links, forms and educational materials.
- Mental Health - General information about integrating mental health services into school based and school linked health center programming with additional linked materials for further assistance.
- Nutrition - Overview of the importance of comprehensive nutritional services for youth including links to detailed trainings, programming ideas, and more.