Inside an office at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital in Happy Valley, a team of five prepared a checklist before setting off to inspect various departments and offices.
They were not health officials, but overseas health care professionals invited to act as 'detectives' to check if the hospital had maintained satisfactory standards.
The five 'surveyors' sent by the Trent Hospital Accreditation Scheme, developed in Britain and adopted by 12 private hospitals in Hong Kong four years ago, conducted the hospital's third audit.
Under the programme, the 'surveyors' visit private hospitals in Hong Kong every two years to audit services ranging from medical equipment and hospital management to staff training and service standards for each department. They also make recommendations for improvements.
Of the five-member team that visited the Hong Kong Sanatorium, three were British and two were from other private hospitals in Hong Kong. They came from different medical backgrounds - hospital administration, nursing, doctors and paramedics. They stayed in the hospital for five days and were free to visit any department or office they wanted and to check records and documents.
Head of the Hong Kong Sanatorium, Walton Li Wai-tat, said the accreditation exercise was a good learning process for staff of all levels. 'It's a new culture for both the top management and frontline staff,' he said. 'We know we have to improve all the time as the standards of accreditation are continually raised.'
