Over 25 Years of Healthcare Accreditation Transformation

Sandra (Sandy) C. Canally, RN is the founder and CEO of The Compliance Team, Inc. (TCT).

At the age of nine, Sandy became the principal caregiver of her gravely-ill single mother in Philadelphia. As a result, she matured into a passionate patient advocate. Sandy went on to become one of the nation’s first Nurse Oncologists to pioneer National Cancer Institute treatment protocols. Her resume would not be complete without mentioning that she has been a patient herself. She survived no less than eight major surgeries, several of which involved near fatal preventable medical errors.

By the mid-1990s, Sandy was convinced that the dominant healthcare accreditation programs of the day had grown unnecessarily complex and burdensome. In 1994, she founded The Compliance Team and challenged herself to come up with healthcare’s first “simplified” service-specific, operations-based, accreditation protocols. Sandy developed a radically different set of quality measures, along with common-sense protocols to meet them. Her efforts dramatically simplified healthcare accreditation and have turned the accreditation process into a much more reliable and consumer-friendly indicator of patient care quality.

Our first program for DMEPOS (Durable Medical Equipment Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies) was beta-tested for four years. In 1998, the first Exemplary Provider® Award was filed at the Library of Congress. Four months later, in March 1999, North Carolina Blue Cross/Blue Shield formally recognized The Compliance Team’s DMEPOS accreditation program – a full three years before CMS made it mandatory for DMEPOS providers to obtain accreditation.

After the passage of the Medicare Modernization Act in 2003, the Secretary of Health and Human Services authorized The Compliance Team to accredit Medicare Part-B DMEPOS providers. In 2014, we received the Secretary’s authority to accredit Medicare Part-A Rural Health Clinic (RHC), and in 2018, The Compliance Team received Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approval to accredit Part-A Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) practitioners.

Today, our DMEPOS programs include accreditation for Complex Rehab, Orthotics and Prosthetics, Clinical Respiratory, and Patient-Centered Respiratory Home™.  We offer a host of Community Pharmacy programs that include: Sterile and Non-Sterile Compounding, Long-Term Care, Specialty Pharmacy, Infusion, TelePharmacy, Patient-Centered Pharmacy Home™, Medicare-approved DMEPOS, Retail Clinic, and a series of Certification Programs. We also provide accreditation programs for Private Duty, Ocularist/Anaplastologist, Sleep Care Management, and Immediate Care.

The Compliance Team, Inc. is recognized as the first certified woman-owned, nurse-led, national healthcare accreditation organization. 2019 marked The Compliance Team’s 25th year in business. We accredit thousands of provider organizations every year in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.

Our Exemplary Provider brand is highly respected as a distinction of superior quality, safety, and commitment to continual improvement.