In addition to liaising with ACC, clinics that wish to hold an ACC urgent care contract will need to engage an approved auditor, who will advise the clinic on preparing for the audit. As part of the contract, clinics will need to be accredited to the UCS.
Once the clinic is prepared, the auditing team, comprising a professional auditor and an RNZCUC-approved urgent care Fellow will assess wide-ranging aspects of the clinic including the clinic building and fit-out, systems, and compliance with legislation.
Compliance with the UCS can appear daunting. RNZCUC has attempted to make the document as practical and useful as possible, though the need to comply with legislation and current quality-assurance industry practices has led to some requirements the purpose of which is not immediately obvious. Additional guidance is provided in the “particular requirements” and their explanation.
Clinics must be re-accredited every three years.
Facility Audit Committee
The RNZCUC Facility Audit Committee (FAC) is responsible for all aspects of the UCS and its including updating particular requirements, revision of the UCS, providing RNZCUC Fellows to attend audits as technical experts, and sign-off of audits.
The FAC has issued policy statements, with additional guidelines to auditing bodies. Note that a recent change of title means that these policy statements and instructions may contain the previous committee name FAS.
Audit endorsement
Approved auditing bodies submit the audit to the FAS for endorsement. The FAS follow these guidelines, endorsing, or otherwise, the audits.
RNZCUC charges a small fee for audit endorsement. The standard fee (as at 1 July 2019) is $420.80 (GST excl). When an audit endorsement is particularly challenging or requires additional time to complete, further charges (at current MCNZ rates for payments of contractors) apply.