Keep the auditor in mind while implementing quality standards

Auditors are a tribe that everyone fears. People imagine them as enemies, trying to point out faults in their work even when they have given their best and “nothing more can be done”. The audit is seen as a cat-and-mouse or hide-and-seek game, where the seeker seems to be on a mission to ‘get you’.

Worry not, because an auditor is not an inch like that. The audit is a third-party review process, where someone who is unbiased and un-involved in a process reviews its performance against an established set of standards. The interest of an auditor is to affect change for the betterment of the client. The auditor plays the role of an observer, whose task is defined by his checklist, and he doesn't go out of his scope. He makes his observations backed by evidence.

It is this objectivity which brings respect to the work of the auditor. In case of NABH, the participating hospitals can even put a complaint if they are not satisfied by the auditor’s report considering bias or malicious intentions. The collection of valid objective evidences provides the grounds on which NABH recommends accreditation for a hospital or rejection of their application.

But do not consider the auditor as a naïve individual either. The auditor is generally an industry expert with sound experience and having undergone training in audit process. By the way of audit-trail, cross-verification and collection of evidences, the auditor makes a case for awarding or not awarding accreditation to a client hospital. There are unscrupulous elements/hospitals who try to fudge records, tell lies and temporarily create processes which seem to show compliance to the standards. But it is the task of the auditor to affirm the trust of the patients in the hospital via accreditation. So an auditor has to smartly criss-cross facts and fiction to come to right conclusions.

Therefore, it is advisable that you must follow the standards in letter and in spirit because you can’t fool the auditor and there are mechanisms to identify and capture non-compliances. However, also use the audit process effectively to seek suggestions for improvements because that is your opportunity to take advice from the industry expert.