Executive Summary
Commission on the Accreditation of Birth Centers Strategic Plan
November 2021
The Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Center’s (CABC) mission is to evaluate freestanding birth centers for their compliance with the Standards for Birth Centers as established by the American Association of Birth Centers (AABC) and alongside midwifery units for their compliance with the CABC’s Standards and Indicators for Alongside Midwifery Units. CABC, thereby, identifies those freestanding birth centers and alongside midwifery units that meet the highest standards of excellence.
Since its inception in 1985, healthcare in general, and birth centers specifically, have changed dramatically. Given that change, and its need to respond to it, CABC undertook a strategic planning initiative. At a high level, the goal of the planning process was to gauge customer satisfaction and make necessary adjustments to ensure ongoing growth and customer loyalty, while at the same time not losing its high standards of excellence.
In the data gathering phase of the planning, CABC discovered that while about half of its members were very satisfied with its services, about a quarter of members where much less satisfied. Member frustration tended to be greatest in smaller, midwife owned centers struggled to invest the time needed to complete CABC accreditation. Complaints tended to center around the accreditation process and cost. To respond to this customer feedback CABC set four goals:
Streamline the accreditation process
Improve technology platforms
Explore customizing the accreditation process for different governance models of its members
Invest in board development and improving governance
Specific objectives that CABC will undertake to meet these goals include reviewing all the Indicators with the goal of making substantial changes, improving or replacing the SER platform, designing and implementing a simplified reaccreditation process, requiring less proof of having met specific Indicators, and assigning specialists to different models of birth centers so that relationships can be strengthened and more expertise can be developed. Additionally, CABC plans to review the complete process and reduce the number of staff and board members involved so that results can be available more quickly. Finally, a diversity, equity and inclusion lens will be adopted and used as a filter in all ongoing work so that, as an organization, CABC can better embody the equity lens that it values.
In order to help ensure that changes are meeting the needs of members, birth centers affiliated with CABC will be engaged in committees and on a Birth Center Advisory Group to help make these changes.
We look forward to continuing to move the organization forward as the birth center movement continues to grow.
CABC Board and Staff
