Stellar Certification for Long-term Care

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Eligibility Criteria

Stellar certification is available for public and private health-care organizations. Before submitting an application, health-care organizations must meet the three eligibility requirements, agree to maintain its standards during the Stellar certification period, and be willing to report potential violations.

Eligibility requirements

  1. The health-care organization has one designated individual who is accountable for overseeing the facility’s nursing practice and will act as the main point of contact with the Stellar Certification Program. Please note the following:
    • The individual would typically have a job title such as chief nursing officer, director of nursing, or nurse manager. They must have completed (at minimum) a master’s degree in nursing, or be working towards this degree or a higher level of education. Individuals can be acting in this position if they are willing to fulfil all duties and responsibilities.
    • The individual is responsible and accountable for all aspects of the health-care organization’s nursing practice, regardless of the facility’s reporting structure.
    • The individual, being in one of the health-care organization’s highest-level administrative positions, can advocate on behalf of nursing staff to the facility’s board of directors (or other decision-making body, as applicable).
  2. The health-care organization complies with the collective agreement of the staff members’ representative union(s), if applicable.
  3. The health-care organization complies with the standards from their provincial or territorial health ministry.

Compliance with the Health Standards Organization (HSO) is highly recommended. Working toward compliance will be considered an asset.

Maintenance of standards during the Stellar certification period

Each Stellar-certified health-care organization must be prepared to maintain its standards throughout the duration of the four-year certification period.

Review our certification timeline to understand the evaluation milestones (i.e., initial submission of documents, staff survey, adjudication reviews, feedback calls) that must be successfully completed.