Organizations that have obtained reaccreditation at least once (“Legacy Organizations”) may be eligible for a streamlined review procedure when applying for reaccreditation the second time. The Standards used to evaluate Organizations applying for reaccreditation using the streamlined procedure remain the same, and the timeframe from submission of the reaccreditation application to Council review remain the same. The streamlined procedure applies to Organizations that have not had significant events, as determined by AAHRPP, within the previous five years. Examples of significant events generally include, but are not limited to, implementation of new types of research (such as an Organization that at the time of last reaccreditation conducted only social science research, but acquired a medical school or hospital and is now engaged in biomedical research); or decisions to expand the program to cover additional regulations (such as an Organization that starts conducting clinical trials and has to start following FDA regulations); or takes on the role of reviewing research for other Organizations); or mergers and acquisitions; or major changes in policies (such as decisions to discard all policies used at previous accreditation and implement a new set or toolkit of policies); or substantial staff reorganization or reduction in resources; or other events reported in the Annual Report. However, depending on how an Organization has implemented programmatic changes, a streamlined application procedure may still be possible. 

The Council on Accreditation reviews all Legacy Organizations in the year that the application for reaccreditation is due and determines whether to grant streamlined review. (Organizations do not need to make a special request to be considered for streamlined review.) The Council’s decision is communicated to the Organization in writing. If an Organization is determined by Council to be eligible for a Streamlined Review, the benefit to the Organization is that their next accreditation cycle will involve, generally, a site visit of no more than two days in length, conducted by no more than two site visitors, and often will involve the review of fewer records than those reviewed in previous site visits. In addition, time will generally be allocated to allow an Organization to showcase innovations and improvements to the program that have occurred since the last accreditation evaluation.