The board of directors of the Board of Certification/Accreditation, International (BOC) recently voted to streamline the certification application process. This is the first step in transitioning to an online application process, which is aimed at making it simpler for prospective certificants to reach their goals.
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| Claudia Zacharias |
“Our board of directors is committed to our ongoing efforts to become more customer-centric,” Claudia Zacharias, MBA, CAE, president and chief executive officer of BOC, state in a press release. “BOC’s 2010 website makeover brought great strides in terms of user-friendliness. The next major improvement will be to revise our application processes, tailoring them to our customers who are seeking self-service, web-based options.”
For all BOC certifications, the application process changes will enhance BOC’s ability to maintain certificant records electronically, with fast access that will remove the need for candidates to send the large amount of paperwork. After a thorough investigation of best practices employed in other health care credentialing organizations, the BOC board voted to make the following changes to the certification application process:
- Eliminate the requirement to create and submit a paper resume;
- Add a checklist of experiential requirements, which will allow candidates to complete and attest to their experiences without having to prepare a long narrative; and
- Create a system that facilitates random audits, verifying applicants’ experiential qualifications.
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| Sharon Nichelson |
“If you look back at the requirements, they were designed for an era that relied on paper and pretty much expected people to jump through hoops,” Sharon Nichelson, CMOF, chairwoman of BOC’s board of directors stated in a press release. “We’re now in an era where most things can be checked with a keystroke, and user convenience has become the norm rather than the exception. That’s what future BOC certificants will expect, so we are positioning BOC for the future.”
Zacharias also noted that the new streamlined process will be helpful to employers.
“The people who handle a facility’s human resources responsibilities are going to have less paperwork, and employers are going to love that,” she stated.
Candidates for the orthotist and prosthetist certifications will need to provide proof that they have fulfilled their educational requirements, in the form of a transcript submitted by their college or university. Similarly, candidates for the BOC pedorthist, orthotic fitter, and mastectomy fitter certifications will need to provide proof that they have fulfilled their educational requirements, as well.
