Background
Beaumont Private Ambulance Service is an Independent private ambulance service providing patient-focused transport services with a fleet of five ambulances based in Ballyheane, Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland. It provides transport services to patients falling within the non-acute emergency care and acute emergency care.
The challenge
Ronan Denning, director, Beaumont Private Ambulance Service, says although it was already Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) accredited and licensed, insurers VHI insisted the service be further accredited particularly if the service was hoping to win a further contract. The company had nine months in which to do this and Ronan says this put the team under a great deal of pressure.
The solution
“We contacted a few companies, but quickly found out CHKS was willing to get involved in the accreditation process and help us through it,” says Ronan. A CHKS client manager was assigned to guide the team through accreditation, which Ronan says was helpful because it seemed like a daunting task. “We initially started off working with the International Accreditation Programme which was then tailored to our service, as many of the standards weren’t applicable to us.”
By using CHKS Accreditation Online, Ronan and the team were able to fill in sections about each applicable criterion quickly and easily and Ronan says the process couldn’t have been made simpler.
The benefits of working with CHKS
Ronan believes that as well as being responsive and flexible, CHKS also helped Beaumont Private Ambulance Service in other ways. “The process of accreditation with CHKS meant that we were given advice along the way. So, for example we set up an executive management committee, tasked with overseeing the running of the company, a Health and Safety and Welfare at Work committee, and a Clinical and Quality Assurance committee, all tasked with overseeing and governing how the company moved forward.
Having access to an online tool was also helpful because it meant details about whether standards were being met or not, could be captured and recorded in a single place which everyone involved in the process had access to.
“Overall it completely changed us. It was a tough process but it has taken us to a different level in terms of our governance and policies and how we deliver and monitor our service. We now have over a hundred policies in place whereas before we had around 50. It’s an ongoing process but we managed to achieve a great deal within a short timeframe.”
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