The Impact of Virtual Site Visits on Programmatic Accreditation Through the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP)

Objective: This research was designed to investigate the effectiveness of programmatic accreditation, when performing a virtual site visit, compared with a traditional on-site visit. Materials and Methods: This study used a quasi-experimental, mixed-methods design with the virtual site visits as the independent variable and the site visit outcomes (number of citations, level of the citation, and recommendation for continuing accreditation) as the dependent variable. For this study, there were 28 diagnostic medical sonography programs throughout the United States, applying to the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), for reaccreditation status. Those programs that experienced a virtual site visit were compared with their counterpart programs (N = 109), which had a traditional on-site visit. Results: Based on these comparisons, there was no significant difference in diagnostic medical sonography programmatic accreditation effectiveness in the United States when performing a virtual site visit. Conclusion: These study results would highly suggest that there was no significant difference in the level of the citations or the accreditation outcomes, based on a virtual site visit compared with those programs having an on-site visit. This research points to the effectiveness of the accreditation process, when is it conducted through a virtual site visit.