By Lauren Himiak

What a difference a year can make. It has been exactly one year since the American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT) began a new educational approval program for schools seeking higher recognition in the very competitive world of education. Within the past 12 months, AAMT has found what works and what needs to be improved. Ellen Drake, CMT, FAAMT, director of education and credentialing, AAMT, shared her thoughts about what the program has become.

How It Works

The medical transcription program approval process was originally instituted to encourage compliance with AAMT's Model Curriculum for Medical Transcription. The curriculum assists educational institutions in developing their transcription programs. Programs must meet specific requirements and institutional criteria established by AAMT.

Schools seeking approval must submit to AMMT a letter of intent and a completed gap analysis, templates for which can be downloaded from the AAMT Website. The gap analysis and letter of intent are reviewed by the Director of Education and/or two peer reviewers. Ultimately, it is reviewed by the Approval Committee for Certificate Programs (ACCP), following which the school is given feedback regarding any deficiencies in the program. The school resubmits the gap analysis after addressing any deficiencies, along with four copies of the formal application.

"A copy goes to two reviewers because each school is assigned two reviewers," said Drake. "AAMT keeps a copy in the office and I receive a copy as well."

The peer reviewers then go through the documentation and make sure all the criteria have been met. If it has, it is then sent to the ACCP for a vote. AAMT has three voting members on the committee while AHIMA has four.

Drake recommends applying 6-8 weeks before the quarterly meetings.

"Reviews take at least 4 hours if the application is perfect," Drake said. "If it's less than perfect, it can take up to 8 hours for review."

ACCP meets quarterly and the entire approval process takes about 90 days.

What Has Changed

One of the latest additions to the process is the gap analysis. AHIMA has been using this for their coding program to turn the model curriculum into bullet points. It highlights the important objectives and key criteria that the school has to meet.

"Now schools will be submitting the gap analysis with their letter of intent," noted Drake.

The schools will also submit a small payment with the gap analysis and if they choose to go on to submitting an application for approval, then that fee will be deducted from their application fee.

"If they never apply then they have paid a very, very small amount for some very professional feedback," Drake said.