URAC AccreditNet -- Tips Regarding Citation and Highlighting

One of the most important things to understand about the desktop review process is that it is the applicant’s responsibility to direct the reviewer’s attention to the specific parts of the document that demonstrate that the applicant complies with each subsection of the standard.  Few things irritate a URAC reviewer more than to be given a large document intended to demonstrate compliance with a multi-subsection standard with no indication as to where in the document, specifically, the language is that demonstrates compliance.  An example of this might be a 100-page quality management program description used to support compliance with Core standards 29-33, with nothing in either the document or the “Citation” sections of AccreditNet that tells the reviewer where to look.  

How should an applicant help the reviewer find the language?  We recommend, quite strongly, that the applicant cite very specific paragraphs (or even sentences) within the submitted document for every subsection.  For example, your citations for your QM plan description for Core 31 might look like this:

Document: QM Program Description
Citation:
Core 31(a)/Page 3, Paragraph IV.A.1
Core 31(b)/P. 7, Par. VII.C.4
Core 31(c)/P. 53, Par. XXIV.B.4.(g)
Core 31(d)/P. 85, Par. XXXV.C.3.
Core 31(e)/P. 2, Par. III.B.3.

In addition to this type of citation, we also recommend that you highlight the specific paragraphs that you’ve indicated in these citations.  Most software programs you’ll be using to prepare your documents (probably Adobe, since URAC prefers PDF format) have a “highlighter” feature.

Reviewers like this, so do it!