The standards conformance process

THE STANDARDS CONFORMANCE PROCESS

The Standards Partnership Scheme provides the foundations for interoperability which will ultimately ensure health and care records reach a standard of information that can be accessed by the right people, in the right place, at the right time. 

Suppliers seeking conformance to receive the Quality Mark will be assessed for conformance against chosen PRSB standards. The conformance process provides crucially important information for supplier’s customers, the wider system and the supplier themselves.

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everyLIFE Technologies’ Chief Information and Compliance Officer, Taffy Gatawa, talks about how undertaking the scheme’s conformance process has improved the development of everyLIFE’s digital products.

What is assessed?

The PRSB assesses:

  • Information model – Data item with its associated:
    • Conformance
    • Cardinality
    • Value set
  • Business rules and requirements
  • Organisational best practice

To be considered conformant, a system should have at least 40% of data items correctly implemented, and all the ‘must have’ data items and business rules for a standard, and the ‘must have’ organisational assurance criteria. This table is an extract from one of our standard conformance packs and indicates examples of must have items. 

How is a supplier assessed for standard conformance?

Each PRSB standard has an accompanying conformance pack. This includes the self-assessment spreadsheet that contains the information model and business rules for a standard. To commence the process, one of our expert assessors will meet with you to discuss how conformance against the relevant standard or standards is assessed. You will then complete the self-assessment form and meet with the assessor again to validate the contents of the form. Our assessors are on hand to provide you with guidance throughout the process.

Two expert assessors will work together with you to review the contents of your self-assessment form, and then run test cases through your system to provide direct evidence. The results are reviewed by an internal panel and the outcomes agreed, including validating the Conformance Report and the contents of the Quality Report.

By participating in an assessment, you can engage in dialogue and challenge about specific areas of standards that are missing, not used or require amendment. PRSB recognises the value of this process in driving uptake and adherence to standards in health and care systems and ensuring standards work effectively.

A visual view of the PRSB standards conformance process

What are the criteria for conformance?

PRSB recognises that our partners might be at the start of their journey to data conformance and organisational best practice in standards and few, if any, will be 100% compliant from the start.

The assessment is intended to recognise and encourage positive, incremental progress in adopting standards. Therefore, we award levels of conformance with the ultimate aim of achieving 100% implementation of the standard.

Achieving the minimum bar (40%) means that a supplier achieving the quality mark has demonstrated an instance of the standard that is safe and effective. Higher percentages of conformance (50-69% and 70% and above) shows how far the supplier has gone between the minimum and ‘best practice’.

A walkthrough of the conformance process

Join our Lead Assessor, Dr Annette Gilmore, for an initial walkthrough of the conformance assessment process and an exploration of our recently published methodology document.

The film will also address some frequently asked questions and common misconceptions associated with the process.

Should you have any specific questions regarding conformance assessment, please get in touch and the team will be happy to assist.

Find out more

You can find out more about our standards conformance process and our Quality Mark by taking a look at our conformance assessment methodology document below.

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Contact us

Contact us at partners@theprsb.org and we can arrange to talk with you, or complete the form to register your interest and we’ll be in touch with more information.