Accreditation Visits

In general, accreditation visits are conducted between May and October each year and the health services and general practices to be visited are identified at the February meeting of the Accreditation Subcommittee  Visits outside this period are scheduled on an ‘as required’ basis and are generally the result of specific issues or concerns raised.

The survey process for accreditation has six stages:

1. Completion of pre-accreditation instruments by the health service/general practice including self-assessment against accreditation standards.
2. Completion of an anonymous survey by prevocational junior medical staff.
3. Review of the health service/general practice by a survey team which examines evidence as documented by the health service/general practice, analysis of HMO feedback provided prior to visit, a tour of prevocational training facilities, and meetings with key staff.
4. Preparation of a survey report and recommendations including duration of accreditation.
5. Health service/general practice feedback on survey team performance.
6. Accreditation recommendations are notified to the Victorian Board of the Medical Board of Australia.

The survey visit should include the following for each site of the health service where prevocational medical trainees are located:

• An introductory meeting of the survey team with the health service executive including the Chief Executive Officer, the Director of Medical Services and Deputies as appropriate, the Medical Workforce/HMO Manager, the Medical Education Officer(s), the Supervisor of Intern Training, Directors of Clinical Training.  Attendees at this meeting can be discussed with the Accreditation Manager (1 hour).
• A meeting or meetings, preferably immediately after the introductory meeting, separately with interns and PGY2 staff (the groups may need to be split depending on number). (1 hour each).
• A lunchtime meeting with senior medical staff (1 hour).  This meeting should include the term supervisors of the intern positions to be accredited.
• A meeting with Nurse Unit Managers and Registrars (45 mins).
• A tour of the facilities including HMO lounge, 1-2 wards (review of HMO workspace), storage of belongings, library and simulation centre.
• A debriefing session of the survey team with relevant senior staff of the facility.
• Time must be allocated in the day for the survey team to prepare at the start of the day and prior to the de-brief, and to write the report at the end of the day.
• Should the visit require visits to multiple sites, adequate travel time must be provided as well as car parking.