FOCUS ON TEC QUALITY ACCREDITATION AT MEDEQUIP
Quality standards play a vital role in helping responsible businesses to audit and verify their performance across a wide range of parameters. Community equipment specialist Medequip Assistive Technology is the first commercial organisation operating in the Technology Enabled Care (TEC) industry in the UK to achieve accreditation to the TEC Quality's new NAEP (National Association of Equipment Providers) module for their Heathrow operations, underlining the company's commitment to providing safe and compliant services.
TEC Quality manages the Quality Standards Framework (QSF) on behalf of the TEC industry representative body, the TEC Services Association (TSA). The QSF is a set of outcome-based standards developed in partnership with key stakeholders across the TEC sector. Recent UKAS accreditation to ISO/IEC 17065:2012 for the Certification of Technology Enabled Care Services has further strengthened the organisation's corporate governance, impartiality and independence.
The new QSF NAEP module focuses on community equipment services, looking at compliance on delivery of CES. It is an important step forward in enabling providers and suppliers to demonstrate advanced levels of safety and quality to commissioners and service users alike, concentrating primarily on outcomes rather than checklist-driven auditing procedures.
Medequip was an integral part of the pilot for the new NAEP module, and has supported the scheme as it evolved as a service delivery module. For Medequip, the outcomes-based approach enabled a totally independent auditing process across the whole journey of the individual receiving the service, from a corporate level to how this is delivered across Medequip's sites and how it impacts upon the service user.
"We believe this step is revolutionary to setting the standards in our industry sector," stated Marie Martinalli, head of SHEQ (Safety, Health, Environment and Quality) and Governance and Training for Medequip. "Completing the NAEP module gave us a 360o view of exactly what we do as a company, identifying key areas where Medequip already had plans in place to deliver continual improvements."
Accreditation to TEC Quality standards is not yet a prerequisite for community equipment service providers, but for Medequip it provided an important opportunity for an independent audit of the services delivered by the company and of its own internal audit processes. Medequip is already accredited to CECOPS (Community Equipment Code of Practice Scheme); and the new accreditation sits alongside this to enable Medequip to achieve best standards and compliance for stakeholders, service users and commissioners.
For further information please contact:
Medequip: Matt Ward matt.ward@medequip-uk.com 07739 641304
Editorial: Ann Horanpr@dmddesign.co.uk01422 371633