About QUAD A

Our History

QUAD A’s journey began in 1977 as a result of a committee within the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS).

AAAAPSF was born from ASPRS’s membership realizing that there was a specific need. In 1977, the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS), which subsequently renamed itself the American Society of Plastic (ASPS) consulted with Mr. Edward Stygar, Jr. to create and operate the Office-based Surgery Accreditation Program.

What developed out of this committee was the need to establish the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Plastic Facilities (AAAAPSF) in order to guarantee the quality of outpatient plastic surgical facilities.

In 1980 the American Association for the Accreditation of Ambulatory Plastic Surgery Facilities (AAAAPSF) was founded in order to better represent outpatient plastic surgical facilities. AAAASPF morphed into the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities (AAAASF) in 1992, recognizing the need for similar standards for all ABMS single surgical and multi-specialty Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs). In that same year, the concept of the AAAAPSF accreditation umbrella was created to cover all of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). To reflect this expansion, the name of the organization was officially changed to AAAASF in 1994.

In 1996 AAAASF received a request to accredit a facility in Australia. The Board elected to pursue the accreditation and the Surgery Facilities Resources, Inc. (SFR), a subsidiary organization to AAAASF, was created in 2005 to offer a program of accreditation internationally. In 2009, the SFR
international accreditation program was renamed AAAASF International (AAAASFI) by the SFR board of directors and in 2015 AAAASFI became part of AAAASF’s main organization.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the approval of deeming authority for AAAASF in 2010, making AAAASF a national accreditation program for providers of outpatient physical therapy and speech-language pathology services, as well as those clinics under the current CMS Rehabilitation Agency/Outpatient Physical Therapy (RA/OPT) Medicare program, including occupational therapy clinics. In 2012, AAAASF was granted deeming authority for inspection and Medicare Accreditation of Rural Health Clinics (RHC) and Rehabilitation Agencies programs.

Orbis, a leading NGO that works to eliminate avoidable blindness, gained accreditation from AAAASF for its Flying Eye Hospital in 2014, further expanding AAAASF’s global reach.

Beginning in 2020, the leadership team at AAAASF, along with its executive board, began the process of not only assessing its internal processes but also gaining insight from the facilities it served. The result was an improved understanding and continued commitment to the core belief that patient safety should always come first.

In 2022, AAAASF completed an extensive rebranding effort in response to its continued growth in the U.S. and abroad. At the heart of this effort was a change of the organization’s name from AAAASF to QUAD A, along with an updated brand identity and expanded online presence.

Since 1980, QUAD A, a non-profit, physician founded and led accreditation organization, has worked with thousands of healthcare facilities to help standardize and improve the quality of health care they provide - always striving to be an effective, efficient, and easy to work with partner that values education, reliability, and communication.