The Survey Visit

What do I bring on the day of the survey? It is important that you bring the following:

  1. Pre-reading. This can either be electronically or on paper. If you are bringing a device to review your pre-reading, ensure you can access your documents in the absence of internet access and have a charger with you.
  2. Your own notes. When you review the pre-reading in preparation for the survey it is a good idea to take notes on the areas you feel need to be explored through the interview process.
  3. A way to take notes. Either pen and paper or via a device.
  4. Personal items, such as water bottles, etc. PMCWA requests health sites provide some light morning tea (for surveys longer than 1.5 hours) and lunch (for surveys commencing or finishing at or between 12:15pm and 1:45pm).

What does the day look like?

  1. Arrival: You’ll be met at a nominated meeting point (meeting information will be received via email prior to the accreditation) at the health site by a member of the medical education team, generally the Medical Education Officer, and be guided to an office where you will meet the rest of the survey team and discuss the timetable for the day. For larger surveys, there may be up to three survey teams.
  2. Survey: Survey teams will be positioned in an office for the duration of the survey where separate groups of the hospital including the executive team, medical education and JMO representatives will arrive for the interviews.
  3. A typical day usually has the following key activities:
    1. Health service welcome and introductions
    2. Interviews with the executive team
    3. Tour of hospital facilities
    4. Department surveys incorporating 10-15 mins interviews with the interns, residents, registrars, Heads of the Department and the Term Supervisor
    5. Debrief with the Executive and Medical Education teams

Expectations of your role as a trainee

The lead surveyor will be notified of your role as a trainee, and you won’t be expected to do anything that is outside of your comfort zone. The lead surveyor will explain the process to you, and you will learn by observing the process, taking notes and asking questions of the survey team (but only during the breaks).

If you feel comfortable to do so, you may start asking some questions to contribute to the interview. As you progress through the day and then attend your next few surveys, you will find you will naturally understand what questions to ask and what areas require accreditation intervention.

By the end of the day, you may be asked if you feel ready to draft an accreditation report (a report template is provided to you) that the others surveyors will review when completed. As you participate in additional surveys you will take on more report writing responsibilities. These decisions are done in consultation with you.

Surveyors debrief

At the conclusion of the day, the lead surveyor will lead a debrief for the survey team and discuss areas that the health service is doing well and areas where they may need to make improvements. This information may have also been discussed during the breaks throughout the day. During this debrief the lead surveyor will allocate report writing duties which you may want to be involved in.

Accreditation outcomes

If the site and each of its departments meet the accreditation standards they will be awarded Full Accreditation. The survey team may provide recommendations to the site, however their Full Accreditation is not contingent on meeting these. If a site or department has not met one or more standards, then there will be conditions listed for them to address and will be awarded Provisional Accreditation. This will only be upgraded to Full once the conditions are met. PMCWA will use a Health Service Internal Review (HSIR) as a follow up for these sites.