AGPAL is seeking experienced healthcare professionals to join our surveyor workforce. Applications are now open for GP Surveyors and Co-Surveyors.
AGPAL Surveyors assess general practices against the RACGP Standards for general practice 5th edition (the Standards), and are instrumental in improving the quality and safety of primary healthcare throughout Australia.
AGPAL Surveyor roles and responsibilities
AGPAL’s GP Surveyors and Co-Surveyors work together. They form a Surveyor Team of two professionals who carry out assessments of general practices against the Standards.
A GP Surveyor is a fully qualified and practicing GP, while a Co-Surveyor is an appropriately qualified practice manager, nurse, allied health professional, or Aboriginal health worker or health practitioner with relevant experience in general practice.
When carrying out an assessment, a GP Surveyor focuses on assessing the clinical aspects of a general practice, while the Co-Surveyor looks at governance and the operational facets.
Commitment required
AGPAL Surveyors are required to each year undertake a minimum of five assessments and complete at least one mandatory training session. Apart from what is practicable, there is no maximum limit on the number of assessments surveyors can carry out each year.
Each Survey Team has an AGPAL Survey Coordinator who plans the on-site assessment activities to optimise the time of everyone involved. This role is usually undertaken by the Co-Surveyor; however, the GP Surveyor is also welcome to do so.
Rewards
AGPAL Surveyors join our contract workforce and are remunerated per assessment. There is no requirement for AGPAL Surveyors to ‘give up’ their current working commitments. Your surveyor commitments fit in with your professional and personal life. You can do as much as you wish or the minimum requirement.
Working with AGPAL offers flexibility and myriad opportunities for professional and personal development.
- Become a trusted source of quality improvement, while developing professionally and gaining insight into the diversity of general practices across Australia.
- The autonomy of being an AGPAL Surveyor is a welcome change to delivering primary healthcare.
- Learn from others and add value to your own practice by implementing innovative ideas, systems and processes.
- Support and mentor peers in the process of continuous quality improvement and be acknowledged as an expert in the field.
- Become a specialist in showing practices how to transform improvement opportunities into sustainable positive change.
- Because of AGPAL’s software and quality checking process, surveyors are valued by peers as experts who can help them understand and put in place continuous quality improvements.
AGPAL’s clients
As an AGPAL Surveyor, you work directly with our clients. You are the ‘face of the company’.
Our clients are general practices large, small and corporate in all states and territories across Australia covering metropolitan, rural and remote locations.
With almost 5000 (and counting) general practice clients, AGPAL Surveyors are valued for being the technical and professional experts in all assessment-related matters.
Surveying with AGPAL
Assessing a general practice
The three main phases of a surveyor’s work are:
- The pre-assessment reading
- The on-site assessment, and
- The post-assessment reporting.
Pre-assessment reading includes the client’s self-assessment of their practice against the Standards and relevant legislation.
During the on-site assessment, surveyors gather evidence of the practice’s level of compliance against the Standards by completing the required observations and interview activities. The Survey Team may identify how to best support the practice with quality improvements by making recommendations to close potential or actual gaps in service, or discussing additional opportunities.
Such input is intended to drive continuous improvement in areas that are relevant and important to the practice; thus, contributing to continuous improvement in safety and quality of the primary healthcare sector.
The minimum on-site assessment time is four hours, but it can be more based on the practice’s size and staff numbers.
The third and final phase of an assessment is completed when surveyors report their findings and recommendations to AGPAL.
Reports are quality checked to ensure objectivity and validity of findings. The final report is the principle source of evidence used by our Decision Makers to determine the awarding of accreditation or corrective actions required.
The entire assessment process is facilitated by AGPAL’s proprietary software, AccreditationPro. From the time a client submits their self-assessment to when AGPAL awards them accreditation, AccreditationPro is our supporting technological tool.
AccreditationPro enables our surveyors to be certain that all requirements of the Standards have been consistently and comprehensively assessed. AGPAL Surveyors are confident their ratings and recommendations are accurate, objective and valuable.
Eligibility
Surveyors in Focus
Surveying since 1997 – Daphne Kneale, AGPAL Co-Surveyor
A ‘Pair of Surveyors’ accreditation adventure
600+ on-site assessments and counting – A/Prof Harry Jacobs, AGPAL GP Surveyor
The pathway to becoming an AGPAL Surveyor
Complete the application form (below)
Successful applicants complete self-paced one-day online training
Trainees attend an observation assessment
Trainees participate in a mentored assessment
Become a fully qualified AGPAL Surveyor!
The initial AGPAL Surveyor training covers the full scope of the RACGP Standards, as well as report writing, and how to use and make the most of AGPAL’s software, AccreditationPro. As your surveyor experience deepens, we provide further annual training to support and enhance your assessment skills and offer professional networking opportunities to help you build relationships and exchange knowledge with your peers.
Additional information about the Standards
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) administers the National General Practice Accreditation (NGPA) Scheme, which supports the consistent assessment of Australian general practices against the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Standards for general practices.
Applications now open – join us as an AGPAL Surveyor
If you would like to become part of our GP Surveyor or Co-Surveyor workforce, submit your details through the form below and we will be in touch.