“Accreditation provides many benefits to our program including National recognition of accreditation, a reasonable expectation of quality assurance as a result of having met the accreditation standards, and a check and balance system for the program to help to insure quality educational delivery.”

–Paramedic Program Director

Standards & Guidelines

“I believe this process will help eliminate many “short-cut” programs that deliver poor education value to students.”

Standards & Guidelines

Resources

Name Last Modified Download
*Proposed* CoAEMSP Interpretations of the CAAHEP Standards and Guidelines (2015)
Jun-2023 Download
CAAHEP Standards & Guidelines 2015 (effective through December 31, 2023)
Oct-2020 Download
CAAHEP Standards & Guidelines 2023 (effective on January 1, 2024)
Oct-2023 Download

Standards & Guidelines Interpretations

Resources

CoAEMSP Interpretations of the CAAHEP Standards and Guidelines (2015)
Feb-2022 Download

The Interpretations are done through policy. The CoAEMSP Interpretations are not part of the CAAHEP Standards and Guidelines document and are subject to change by CoAEMSP. Questions regarding the Interpretations can be directed to CoAEMSP.

Recognized Institutional Accrediting Agencies

Referring to Standard I.A.1.
Access the website listing agencies recognized by the U.S. Department of Education

Referring to Standard I.A.3.
For health care organization accreditation, those accrediting agencies need to have “deeming authority” from the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). There are many categories for those agencies. Learn more here: “Policy and Requirements for an Application for Approval of an Accreditation Program.”

The CAAHEP Standards for Sponsorship states:
I. Sponsorship
A. Sponsoring Institution

A sponsoring institution must be at least one of the following, and must either award credit for the program or have an articulation agreement with an accredited post-secondary institution:

  1. A post-secondary academic institution accredited by an institutional accrediting agency that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, and authorized under applicable law or other acceptable authority to provide a post-secondary program, which awards a minimum of a diploma/certificate at the completion of the program.
  2. A foreign post-secondary academic institution acceptable to CAAHEP, which is authorized under applicable law or other acceptable authority to provide a postsecondary program, which awards a minimum of a certificate/diploma at the completion of the academic program.
  3. A hospital, clinic or medical center accredited by a healthcare accrediting agency or equivalent that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and authorized under applicable law or other acceptable authority to provide healthcare, and authorized under applicable law or other acceptable authority to provide the post-secondary program, which awards a minimum of a diploma/certificate at the completion of the program.
  4. A governmental (i.e., state, county, or municipal) educational or governmental medical service, and which is authorized by the State to provide initial educational programs, and authorized under applicable law or other acceptable authority to provide the post-secondary program, which awards a minimum of a diploma/certificate at the completion of the program.
  5. A branch of the United States Armed Forces or other Federal agency, which awards a minimum of a certificate/diploma at the completion of the program.

CAAHEP / CoAEMSP Require Publication of Outcomes Results

In January 2015, CAAHEP made a change to Standard V.A.4 in the accreditation Standards for all its professions. The language in the EMS-Paramedic Standards now states:

V. Fair Practices
A. Publications and Disclosure

  1. The sponsor must maintain, and make available to the public current and consistent summary information about student/graduate achievement that includes the results of one or more of the outcomes assessments required in these Standards.Guideline: The sponsor should develop a suitable means of communicating to the communities of interest the achievement of students/graduates (e.g. through a website or electronic or printed documents).

For programs to be in compliance with the new Standard, CoAEMSP adopted the following policy:

Programs must publish their outcomes for the National Registry or State Written Exam, Retention, and Positive Job Placement annually. The data published must be verifiable by the Annual Report. Since the new Annual Report is based on the calendar year, the new annual published outcomes for 2017 must be published and verifiable by the submission of the 2017 Annual Report due March 15, 2019. The outcomes data is no longer based on a 3-year average.

To assist the public in finding your outcomes, programs must publish their latest outcomes results on the Paramedic educational program’s homepage of its website. Programs must provide the direct link to the website location of the published outcomes in their Annual Report. The direct link will be forwarded to CAAHEP