“Sooner or later, we’ll probably give up (Joint Commission) accreditation … whether or not we move,” he said.

The Joint Commission accredits and certifies health organizations in the U.S. and evaluates them to help maintain quality care.

Hillard said by skipping accreditation, the university could save on the expenses of paying the accreditation agency and spending money to prepare for surveys by the accrediting body. He did not give a time frame for when MSU might choose not to renew accreditation.

Some MSU officials and students have expressed concern that MSU’s health services would lose accreditation if moved to the MSU Clinical Center on Service Road, but Joint Commission spokeswoman Elizabeth Zhani said the move alone would not jeopardize accreditation, even if other offices in the Clinical Center aren’t accredited.

“The way an organization loses accreditation is if they withdraw from accreditation or if they have an issue related to patient safety or quality,” she said.

Accreditation is important to some because it represents a third party watching over the practices at Olin, said Caitlin Schultz, the president of the Student Health Advisory Council.

“I have a difficult time understanding and seeing the longer output about how quality care for students is going to be improved if we moved down to the Clinical Center,” Schultz said.

Hillard said the university still could provide the same quality of services to students without accreditation.

“The things … that are required for health and safety, we do anyway,” Hillard said.

But Kathleen Braunlich, communications and planning coordinator for Olin, said accreditation forces the center to stay on track and maintain quality of care. She said some involved with the facility might not miss the work it takes to be accredited.

“There’s a lot of upkeep, there’s a lot of tracking what you do to ensure that quality stays at a high level,” she said.

Although accreditation is important to some, the label is not essential to providing quality health services, said Margaret Spear, director of university health services at Penn State University and American College Health Association representative to the board of directors of the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care. Spear said accreditation is similar to a “good housekeeping” seal of approval.

“You can have a great health service and not be accredited,” she said. “(It’s) not the only thing on which to base your assessment.”

MSU Provost Kim Wilcox will receive recommendations on the possible move of health services by Oct. 16.

Hillard said he also would like to incorporate urgent care centers in different campus neighborhoods to provide care for students who need quick nurse attention.

These urgent care centers might be in place as soon as fall 2010, he said.