Involving consumers in accreditation: the Irish experience.

Background: Following the 2004 review of the Acute Care Accreditation Scheme, the Irish Health Services Accreditation Board (IHSAB) decided to increase the level of consumer involvement in the accreditation process by including consumers as members of the review teams assessing healthcare organizations. Such consumers were known as service user (SU) surveyors where SUs were defined as any person who has used the Irish health system, i.e. a patient or relative/carer, etc.

Objective: Consumer surveyors first participated in surveys in 2005 and a total of seven surveys took place that year. An evaluation of the role and participation of the consumer surveyor was conducted in 2006.

Methods: All stakeholder groups were consulted, i.e. consumer and peer review surveyors, applicant organizations and IHSAB staff, and a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques was used.

Results: Stakeholders considered that consumer involvement introduced greater objectivity and credibility. Characteristics such as good communication and interpersonal skills, excellent powers of observation and objectivity were identified as important traits for consumer surveyors. There were some issues in relation to the clarity and consistency of their role in terms of the rating of criteria and their contribution to the accreditation report. There was support among the stakeholder groups for greater consumer involvement in the process by participating in additional tours and interviews.

Conclusion: The evaluation highlights that the introduction of consumer surveyors has been successful but illustrates that their role and level of involvement in the process may need to be re-examined.