Today's Accreditation Association now includes 16 member organizations representing the broad spectrum of ambulatory health care.

The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (Accreditation Association/AAAHC) was formed in 1979 with the fundamental purpose to:

"encourage and assist ambulatory health care organizations
to provide the highest achievable level of care for
recipients in the most efficient and economically sound manner. The AAAHC accomplishes this by the operation
of a peer-based assessment, consultation, education
and accreditation program."

The six founding members of the AAAHC were the American College Health Association, the American Group Practice Association (now known as the American Medical Group Association), the Federated Ambulatory Surgery Association (now known as the ASC Foundation), the Group Health Association of America (now known as the American Association of Health Plans), the Medical Group Management Association, and the National Association of Community Health Centers. Today's Accreditation Association now includes 16 member organizations representing the broad spectrum of ambulatory health care. The growth of the Board has helped the AAAHC to incorporate new standards in areas such as dentistry and health education and wellness, while also helping to keep the standards current to reflect cutting-edge ambulatory care knowledge and practice.

Since its inception, the AAAHC has promoted a voluntary, peer-based, consultative and educational survey process to advance patient care. These values still hold true today, as embodied in the current mission statement:

"The AAAHC is committed to maintaining its position as the preeminent leader in developing standards to advance and promote patient safety, quality, value and measurement of performance for ambulatory health care through peer based accreditation processes, education and research."

A more detailed history of the Accreditation Association can be found in an appendix of the AAAHC Accreditation Handbook for Ambulatory Health Care.