Accreditation of a general practice that performs point-of-care testing

Accreditation of a general practice that performs point-of-care testing

The RACGP supports accreditation as a voluntary scheme.

To be accredited against the Standards, a practice needs to:

• meet the definition of a general practice for the purpose of accreditation, and then
• be successfully assessed by an accrediting agency approved under the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) National General Practice Accreditation Scheme (the NGPA Scheme), which commenced on 1 January 2017.

Accreditation against the Standards seeks to:

• improve patient safety^(8),(9),(10)
• promote person-centredness, including support for patients and their inclusion in decision-making relating to their care⁽¹¹⁾
• improve the quality of healthcare⁽⁹⁾
• foster continuous quality improvement⁽⁹⁾
• foster a culture of safety in general practice^(9),(8)

Further information about the NGPA Scheme, approved accrediting agencies, and surveyor teams is available on the ACSQHC website.

Accreditation of a general practice that performs point-of-care testing

To be accredited against the point-of-care (PoCT) standard, a practice needs to:

• meet all required criteria in the PoCT standard in addition to all other mandatory criteria in the Standards (The RACGP encourages practices to meet aspirational criteria, but they are not essential)
• be formally assessed against the PoCT standard by an accrediting agency approved under the National General Practice Accreditation Scheme (the Scheme), which commenced on 1 January 2017.

The PoCT accreditation visit can occur concurrently with the general practice accreditation visit or after it.