IMTJadmin - 07/03/2008 12:21
HQS was formerly known as Kings Fund Organisational Audit (KFOA) and was part of the Kings Fund. In 1998, it changed its name to the Health Quality Service and in 2000 became an independent charity in its own right. Since January 2005, HQS has been part of CHKS Ltd, a company specialising in knowledge-management systems for healthcare. The CHKS Healthcare Accreditation and Quality Unit (HAQU), which incorporates the Health Quality Services (HQS), provides an international-accreditation programme, “which has been applied in Italy, Cyprus, South Africa and the Azores, as well as consultancy support for developing healthcare quality”.
The programme consists of a set of standards that covers all aspects of healthcare provision, as wll as an organisational development and assessment process leading to external peer review and an award of accreditation. Designed to be adapted for the local cultural, legislative and professional frameworks of the host country, standards include clinical governance, spiritual care of patients, marketing and telecommunications services. “From the international perspective, our financial management controls invoicing, billing and ensuring the patient is informed in advance of the costs of their procedures,” says Muddiman. Options include implementation for individual services or departments, or a whole organisation, focus on specific issues such as clinical governance or risk management to suit the clients’ needs and working solely on a developmental basis, towards HQS accreditation or joint HQS accreditation and ISO certification. Programmes are available for acute hospitals, primary care, adult mental health services, child and adolescent mental health services, learning disability services, hospice and palliative care services, nursing and residential care homes, cruise ships, consultancy and training services.
HQS’ programmes have been applied across Europe and beyond – in Portugal, Madeira and the Azores, Cyprus, Italy, Guernsey and South Africa. HQS also offers dual accreditation and ISO 9001:2000 certification.
“All of our surveyors are full-time healthcare professionals, senior healthcare people, directors of nursing and operational managers,” says Muddiman. “We go through a process of education and selection with them and they are then trained to undertake accreditation and ISO surveys. So for facilities seeking both ISO and accreditation, it’s the same set of standards, the same process at the same time, but they have the knowledge that they have been surveyed by healthcare professionals, so it’s a total peer-review process.”
Visit www.hqs.org.uk.
