In January 2002, the Commission on Accreditation for Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP)appointed the Accreditation Review Council on Education in Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting (ARC/STSA) as the official CAAHEP Committee on Accreditation (CoA) for educational accreditation in Surgical Assisting. As a result of this action, in March 2002 the ARC/STSA created its Subcommittee on Accreditation for Surgical Assisting* (SASA) to help the ARC/STSA Board of Directors administer surgical assisting accreditation services.
In April 2002, the original Standards and Guidelines for the Profession of Surgical Assisting were approved and SASA began accepting applications for surgical assistant program accreditation. Currently ten (10) Surgical Assisting programs have earned and maintain CAAHEP accreditation.
More recently, effective August 1, 2008, CAAHEP approved the revised 2008 Standards and Guidelines for Education in Surgical Assisting reflecting outcomes based accreditation (please see link below). In 2009, the ARC/STSA and its SASA launched the new Standards Interpretive Guide (SIG) for Surgical Assisting program officers, educators and, school administrators.
*SASA membership includes representatives from the ARC/STSA, AST and NSAA.
