ISQua EEA works with over 70 client organisations in over 30 countries/regions around the world. Ninety sets of health and social care standards are currently accredited by ISQua EEA which includes standards for acute hospitals, laboratory services, diagnostic imaging services, outpatient services and residential care services for older persons among others.Over forty external evaluation organisations have achieved ISQua EEA organisational accreditation while more than twenty external evaluation organisations have their surveyor training programmes accredited with ISQua EEA.
The International Society for Quality in Health Care External Evaluation Association (ISQua EEA) was established by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) in 2018 to deliver its external evaluation services.
ISQua EEA commenced operations in 2019 and provides third-party external evaluation services to health and social care external evaluation organisations and standards developing bodies around the globe.
ISQua EEA’s primary programme is the International Accreditation Programme (IAP) which was established by ISQua in 1999. Through the IAP ISQua EEA assesses and accredits:
- Sets of health and social care standards used for external evaluation;
- The training programmes designed and delivered by external evaluation organisations to train their surveyors (those individuals who undertake the assessment of services on their behalf);
- External evaluation organisations who assess health or social care service providers including accreditation, certification or regulatory organisations;
- Quality and patient safety training programmes for health or social care professionals designed and provided by external evaluation or other organisations.
ISQua EEA works with over 70 client organisations in over 30 countries/regions around the world. Ninety sets of health and social care standards are currently accredited by ISQua EEA which includes standards for acute hospitals, laboratory services, diagnostic imaging services, outpatient services and residential care services for older persons among others.
Over forty external evaluation organisations have achieved ISQua EEA organisational accreditation while more than twenty external evaluation organisations have their surveyor training programmes accredited with ISQua EEA. The quality and patient safety training programme was launched in 2022 and is the newest addition to the IAP product portfolio. The first quality and patient safety training programme accreditation award was issued earlier this year to a client organisation from Jordan.
The ISQua EEA assessment process provides organisations with a quality improvement roadmap. Through the process, which is similar to that used by accreditation or other external evaluation organisations, organisations first undertake a self-assessment exercise where they assess their own performance against defined ISQua EEA standards. For example, sets of standards are assessed against the Guidelines and Principles for the Development of Health and Social Care Standards (the Principles). The self-assessment exercise allows organisations to identify where they are performing well in relation to the ISQua EEA standards as well as to identify areas requiring improvement and to identify and plan actions to address the areas requiring improvement.
The completed self-assessments and supporting evidence are the basis of the ISQua EEA assessments as these are then independently validated by a team of ISQua EEA international peer review surveyors. The ISQua EEA surveyors work in external evaluation or quality and patient safety training and bring this experience and knowledge when assessing sets of health and social standards, surveyor training programmes, external evaluation organisations and quality and patient safety training programmes.
The ISQua EEA survey team review an organisation’s self-assessment and supporting evidence and produce a report of their findings outlining the organisation’s level of compliance with each criterion, highlighting areas where the organisation is performing well as well as areas requiring improvement. Organisations are provided with recommendations for the specific areas requiring improvement. The ISQua EEA process is designed as a continuous improvement process and if successfully accredited client organisations are required to provide progress reports to demonstrate how they are addressing the recommendations outlined in their survey report. In this way, the IAP provides external evaluation organisations with a framework for improvement as they have specific and defined areas that they need to work on to maintain their ISQua EEA accreditation.
ISQua EEA also updates the standards underpinning its programmes on average every four years to ensure that they reflect current best practice. This may involve introducing new requirements which is another way in which ISQua EEA continues to challenge external evaluation organisations to continuously improve.
ISQua EEA is currently revising the 5th Editions of the Principles and the Guidelines and Standards for External Evaluation Organisations (the Standards). The 6th Edition of the Principles are due to be published later this year with the 6th Edition of the Standards due in 2025.
For further information, visit www.ieea.ch