IAS Accreditation
Through a partnership between the International Accreditation Service (IAS) and the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (I.C.E.), the Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS) received accreditation under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 17024 Accreditation Standard. IAS accredits personnel certification bodies to ISO/IEC Standard 17024. This accreditation provides a global benchmark for personnel certification schemes to operate in a consistent, comparable and reliable manner worldwide. IAS is a leading accreditation body in the U.S. that is recognized by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation. As one of the leading accreditation bodies in the United States, IAS is a signatory to the three primary international organizations that form a unified system for evaluating and recognizing competent accreditation bodies worldwide.
Accreditation is a formal, independent verification where a program or institution meets established quality standards and is competent to carry out specific conformity assessment tasks. Accreditation supports the increasing technological and global specialization of skills and personnel. ISO/IEC 17024:2012 is an international standard that sets general requirements for bodies that issue certifications to individual persons. An accredited personnel certification body ensures that your certification meets a certain standard of quality. ISO 17024:2012 governs how certifications are developed, maintained, and administered.
The Board of Pharmacy Specialties IAS certificate shows that BPS has met the requirements for AC474, International Accreditation Services (IAS) Accreditation Criteria for Bodies Operating Certification of Persons, and has demonstrated compliance with ISO/IEC Standard 17024:2012, Conformity assessment – General Requirements for Bodies Operating Certification of Persons.
NCCA Accreditation
The Board of Pharmacy Specialties offers several certification programs accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) which is the accreditation arm of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (I.C.E.). The NCCA’s Standards for the Accreditation of Certification Programs, which were originally created in the mid-1970s, were the first standards developed by the credentialing industry for professional certification programs. The NCCA Standards were most recently updated in 2021 and more than 300 certification programs are currently NCCA-accredited.
Accreditation for professional or personnel certification programs provides impartial, third-party validation that your program has met recognized national and international credentialing industry standards for development, implementation, and maintenance of certification programs. NCCA uses a peer review process to establish accreditation standards, evaluate compliance with these standards, recognize programs that demonstrate compliance, and serve as a resource on quality certification. Earners of the five-year NCCA accreditation have demonstrated their understanding of, and compliance with, the NCCA Standards for Accreditation of Certification Programs. NCCA evaluates programs for accreditation in each of the following areas: (1) Purpose, Governance, and Resources, (2) Responsibilities to Stakeholders, (3) Assessment Instruments, (4) Recertification, (5) Quality Assurance, and (6) Maintaining Accreditation.
NCCA accreditation is an essential benchmark of quality and demonstrates a commitment to excellence in administering a professional certification program on the part of the certifying agency. BPS is firmly committed to the NCCA accreditation process and affirms its ongoing obligation to the public, board-certified pharmacists, and other stakeholders.
To view the digital badges for the NCCA accredited programs administered by BPS, please click the links below:
- Nuclear Pharmacy (2018)
- Nutrition Support Pharmacy (2018)
- Pharmacotherapy (2018)
- Psychiatric Pharmacy (2018)
- Oncology Pharmacy (2018)
- Ambulatory Care Pharmacy (2018)
- Critical Care Pharmacy (2018)
- Pediatric Pharmacy (2018)
- Geriatric Pharmacy (2016)
- Cardiology Pharmacy (2017)
- Compounded Sterile Preparations Pharmacy (2022)
- Infectious Diseases Pharmacy (2022)
