Any complaint against the CHKS service, whether by clients, suppliers, or other parties is recorded and investigated. The CHKS Directors are informed of all complaints and are responsible for investigating these or delegating these to an appropriate member of staff to investigate and take corrective action where this is justified.
All complaints are discussed at CHKS Management and Team meetings to ensure staff are aware of the issue and lessons learned. The handling of complaints is audited regularly with the aim of ensuring that the solutions to complaints are prompt, appropriate, effective and lasting.
For full details of our complaints policy please contact us by email.
Any CHKS accredited or ISO certificated organisation or applicant for accreditation can request the accreditation appeals panel to review the decision in their case.
All requests for review are submitted to the panel via a request to the accreditation services manager. The appeals panel will consider the facts, without influence from commercial or undue pressures. Information about the decision review procedure is provided to all clients in the guidance booklet issued. All decision reviews and their outcomes are recorded.
For more detail on appeals handling, please email the accreditation services manager to see the appropriate section of the CHKS Accreditation Rules and Guidance.
CHKS has systems in place for the management of impartiality to include identification of risks and consideration of potential conflicts of interest between stakeholders in accordance with ISO/IEC 17021. This includes analysis of relationships between stakeholders, analysis of client related work and management of the assessment process to ensure impartiality.
When approached to undertake any work for a client, CHKS considers whether the requested work would involve a conflict of interest for the organisation.
If it is deemed that there is a conflict of interest, CHKS must not undertake the work requested. In this instance, advice should be provided to the client on reputable organisations who could deliver the required services.
Client management for CHKS accreditation and certification programmes is provided in such a way that there is no conflict between the role of advising on the implementation of the accreditation process and assessing compliance achieved with accreditation/ certification standards.
Surveyors on external peer review surveys, working in a voluntary capacity for CHKS, are encouraged to share their experience to help healthcare organisations to improve the quality of their services. This is not considered to be consultancy on behalf of CHKS but is integral to the added value of a peer review process.
For the full policy on impartiality please request by email.
For advice and further information email info@chks.co.uk.
