CareGuard attested to AHRQ that it does not accredit or license providers. The old website said the opposite. Here is the correction and why it matters.
CareGuard’s previous website was built almost entirely on a word CareGuard is not entitled to use. This is the correction, in public, because a quiet edit would not be one.
What the old site said
It offered “Compliance and Medical Safety Certification for Nursing Home Facilities.” It described “Our Comprehensive Certification Process.” It said “When a facility is Care Guard certified, you can be confident that it’s been thoroughly reviewed.” Its final call to action read: “Get your facility CERTIFIED.”
Is CareGuard an accrediting or licensing body?
On the certification form for initial listing as a Patient Safety Organization, CareGuard attested that it is not “an entity that accredits or licenses health care providers” and not “an entity that oversees or enforces statutory or regulatory requirements governing the delivery of health care services.”
Those attestations are conditions of the listing. A listed PSO has an ongoing obligation to notify AHRQ promptly if it can no longer comply with any of them.
Why can’t CareGuard call a facility “certified”?
An organization cannot attest in Washington that it does not accredit providers and advertise in St. Louis that facilities are certified by it. The word “certified” does specific work in health care: it tells a reader that an authority applied a standard and issued a finding a third party can rely on. CareGuard applies a checklist and reports to the owner who commissioned it. Those are not the same act, and dressing one as the other misleads exactly the people least able to check — families choosing a facility.
The vocabulary now
- Correct: safety review, facility safety assessment, patient safety review.
- Correct credential line: a Patient Safety Organization listed by AHRQ, PSO P0268.
- Never: certified, certification, accredited, CareGuard certified, CareGuard approved.
- Also never: Medicare certified — Medicare does not list PSOs at all; PEO, which is a different kind of organization entirely; and any description of CareGuard as a nursing home, which it is not and has never been.
What can a facility say after a CareGuard safety review?
That it commissioned a CareGuard safety review, when it was done, and what it found. That is a stronger claim than a seal, because it is checkable.
The count, while we are here
The review is 189 items across 54 categories. Any other figure that has circulated is wrong and is not used on this site. All 54 categories.
Frequently asked questions
Does CareGuard certify or accredit nursing homes?
No. When CareGuard applied for listing as a Patient Safety Organization, it attested to AHRQ that it is not an entity that accredits or licenses health care providers, and not one that oversees or enforces the rules governing health care. Those attestations are conditions of the listing. CareGuard applies a checklist and reports to the owner who commissioned the review; that is not a certification a third party can rely on.
Is CareGuard Medicare certified?
No, and the phrase does not apply. Medicare does not list Patient Safety Organizations at all. The accurate credential line is a Patient Safety Organization listed by AHRQ, PSO P0268. CareGuard is also not a PEO, which is a different kind of organization entirely, and it is not a nursing home and has never been one.
What does a CareGuard safety review cover?
The review is 189 items across 54 categories. The correct names for it are safety review, facility safety assessment or patient safety review. A facility that commissioned one can say so, when it was done and what it found. That is a stronger claim than a seal, because anyone can check it.