December 14, 2007


Important AMHSA Auditor Update

2008 Changes to the Municipal Auditing and Quality Assurance Processes

 

NEW Documents to Download and Print:

  1. Sampling Criteria for Interviews and Sites: 2008-SamplingCriteria.pdf
  2. Executive Report Template: 2008-ExecReportTemplate.doc (MS Word document)
  3. Executive Report Guidelines: 2008-ExecReportGuidelines.pdf
  4. Quality Assurance Review Form: 2008-QAReviewForm.pdf

 

Explanation of Changes and New Documents:

In 2008 there will be several changes to the Partnerships Standards surrounding the performance of health and safety audits. These changes are being made to address concerns of employers, auditors, Alberta Employment and Immigration, and the Certifying Partners.

The Partnerships team performs quality assurance (QA) review audits on all Certifying Partners — the standardized QA review form is a result of these audits. It will be adopted by all Certifying Partners in an effort to ensure consistency in QA policies and procedures. AMHSA will use the new QA review form on all 2008 audits. As a direct result of its Partnerships audit conducted earlier this year, AMHSA has developed a 2008 Executive Report template which our auditors must adopt.

We've also created documents which outline the new QA, and the changes to the sampling criteria for sites and interviews (including new minimums tables and instructions on the “representative sampling” requirement).

Caution: in many cases the minimum number of interviews required will not meet the “representative sampling” requirement! Please also note that the numbers in the table have changed, and not meeting this standard is considered a fatal audit flaw.

We strongly recommend that you review these documents thoroughly. AMHSA will be hosting several Auditor Recertification and Update sessions and we encourage you to attend one of these sessions, regardless of where you stand in the recertification cycle, to ensure that the expectations are clearly understood. AMHSA will offer a minimum of five training update sessions for our auditors in 2008, which will be posted on the Course Calendar section of our website — www.amhsa.net.

As well, we encourage all AMHSA members to consider conducting their audits earlier in the year than the normal “fall rush” — this will ensure that auditors have ample time to address any difficulties/concerns and will provide an opportunity to audit slightly different operations or activities in your workplace.

CLICK HERE to access the following documents to download and print, which are explained in more detail below:

  1. Sampling Criteria for Interviews and Sites: 2008-SamplingCriteria.pdf
  2. Executive Report Template: 2008-ExecReportTemplate.doc
  3. Executive Report Guidelines: 2008-ExecReportGuidelines.pdf
  4. Quality Assurance Review Form: 2008-QAReviewForm.pdf

If you have any questions upon review, please contact us at 1-800-267-9764 or (780) 417-3900.

Note: This information will also be mailed to all of our PIR municipalities before the new year.


AUDIT INTERVIEWS CRITERIA (see 2008-SamplingCriteria.pdf – page 1)

The new criteria includes guidelines to ensure representative sampling and a table with new minimums.

“Representative” sample means interviewees must include personnel from all departments, all shifts, and a cross-section of new hires to experienced personnel; and personnel from every staffing level — workers (W), supervisors (S), managers (M).

To meet the new criteria, first ensure you have met the minimum number of interviews according to the "Interview Minimums" table. To meet the representative aspect, municipal auditors will often conduct more interviews than the minimum number required because of the scope of municipal operations!

For example, the Town of Happy Valley has a total of 80 employees in five departments. Although the new minimum number of required interviews is 21, the auditor determined that she required 26 interviews to fulfill the representative aspect of the criteria because of the number of departments, types of employees and shifts involved in the audit.

If she had only conducted 21 interviews (met the “minimum” requirement), the Quality Assurance Review would have failed because the interview sample did not meet the “representative” aspect of the criteria.

If your QA Review fails, the audit will not be submitted to AEII and
the municipality being audited will lose its COR.


AUDIT SITES CRITERIA (see 2008-SamplingCriteria.pdf – page 2)

When planning your audit, you must ensure you meet the site sampling criteria for documentation review and observation tours.

“Representative” site sampling means you must include sites representing all areas of the operations, sites with differing size and number of workers, and sites that are different from the majority of sites because of hazards that exist or geographic location. The main shop and/or office complex must be included in every audit!

As well, you must meet the minimum number of sites according to the new “Site Minimums” table.


EXECUTIVE REPORT TEMPLATE (see 2008-ExecReportTemplate.doc)

AMHSA’s new Executive Report (MS Word document) template ensures that audits submitted for quality assurance review will include all of the necessary information, such as:

  • Background Information (Audit Type, Dates; Municipality and Contact Person Information; COR, WCB Account and Industry Code)
  • Purpose
  • Scope (site sampling, tours, interviews)
  • Auditors (Lead Auditor and Team Auditor participation — auditors must participate in all aspects to count toward their continued certification)
  • Results (overall score)
  • Element by Element Summary (score, strengths, and suggestions for improvement)
  • Next Steps
  • Conclusion
  • Lead Auditor Signature

See guidelines for completing the Executive Report: 2008-ExecReportGuidelines.pdf


QUALITY ASSURANCE REVIEW CRITERIA (see 2008-QAReviewForm.pdf)

AMHSA has adopted a new Partnerships quality assurance review form and process. The form requires several new/expanded items which we’ve incorporated in our new Executive Report template.

Note:

  • Any issues found during the QA process that could affect the audit score will be returned to the auditor for correction/clarification. Audits will be returned a maximum of two times — the auditor has a maximum of 20 days to complete any required corrections.
  • Audits will also be returned to auditors if there are instances of contradiction in justifications between questions or elements.
  • Auditors must use a consistent methodology for scoring range questions. Provide positive response rate for all Interview questions, and quantify documentation and observation questions (provide number or percentage of positive indicators; avoid use of vague language such as “most”, “not all”, etc.).
  • Auditors are prohibited from submitting confidential data (e.g. interviewee names).

Another significant change is that the scoring is weighted differently than in our previous QA review document.

For example, in Element 1, four points will be deducted for each question where the notes do not adequately justify the score. This means that the justifications in Element 1 are worth a total of 88 marks.

(In our previous QA review document, justifications were worth a total of only 15 marks for each element, no matter how many questions were in the element.)

If your QA Review fails, the audit will not be submitted to AEII and
the municipality being audited will lose its COR.


Be sure to review your most recent QA reviews
and implement any recommendations made by AMHSA on future audits.


If you have questions about the 2008 changes, please contact us at 1-800-267-9764 or (780) 417-3900.

AMHSA is confident that these changes will improve audit quality, and in turn, contribute to the prevention of illness and injury in Alberta workplaces.


Shannon Thomas
PIR/COR Technical Coordinator
Alberta Municipal Health & Safety Association
www.amhsa.net

 
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