The HDAA Story

Our auditing organisation began in Brisbane, Queensland with a small team of people who believed (and still do) that despite its reputation "auditing" can have a significant impact on service delivery and consequently the lives of people with disability and the quality of health care organisations. We also strongly believed (and still do) that the most effective way of supporting service development is to work as a colleague and partner in support of services.

Our passion and vision is to improve the quality of the lives of people living with a disability and to contribute to safeguarding the delivery of healthcare. In so doing we hope to contribute to making our healthcare organisations and communities stronger.

In early 2007 we were still a fledgling organisation with a small team base in various locations. We had a General Manager who was supported by another manager and a small team of auditors. At that time we were guided by our current Managing Director, David Hamer. Through this passion and vision we embarked on the next phase of our journey. We began building our disability programme in Queensland and were appointed to accredit diagnostic imaging services. We opened our first office and recruited more staff to deliver an enhanced and expanded the range of services as well as building the quality of our own auditing services. We are now providing auditing of some sort in all states and territories.

From the start we pursued the philosophy that positive, relationships are essential if we are to have credibility and gain acceptance when making judgements about services. We deeply understand that there has to be considerable respect for a service or practice to accept feedback. Services and practices need to feel that they are working with a true professional who is committed to helping improve and safeguard the service or practice.

We have always believed that we should do everything in our power to ensure our clients should receive the insight necessary to enable them to develop and grow. We have followed our belief that the relationships we have with managers and staff of clients is central to achieving our purpose.

We identified early on that our skills were directly applicable to health and disability services. All of the HDAA people who are involved in auditing have extensive experience as people who have received disability support or as managers who have worked at senior levels in the health and disability sectors.

The demand for our services has increased rapidly, driven by our commitment to providing a personalised cost effective service. We continued building our disability auditing services with the introduction of the Victoria Disability Standards and National Disability Advocacy Standards programmes. We also were selected by the Department of Health and Ageing as one of a select number of organisations to accredit diagnostic imaging services; which was the forerunner to standards setting to other healthcare services.

By building our client base in Queensland, Victoria and in other states have been able to further expand our audit programs.

The key events that shaped how we've grown include:

• In 2007 approximately 40 services in Queensland selected us as their preferred provider of certification services. This was sufficient to support our operation move forward.
• In 2008 we were selected by the Department of Health and Ageing to provide diagnostic accreditation services throughout the nation. This positioned us at the beginning of a new movement of standards setting for all healthcare organisations.
• In 2009 ownership changed and the company became a Pty Ltd Australian entity. With this change we changed our brand to look more modern.
• In 2009 we competed for, and were selected, by nearly half of the services that participated in the Standards for Disability Services in Victoria quality development programme. This provided us with insight into the disability service delivery in Victoria and especially the monitoring of outcomes.
• In early 2010 we were successful in being selected by about 40% of the services that participated in the National Disability Advocacy Program independent monitoring development. This provided us with further insight into the role of advocacy services.
• In April 2010 we were selected by the Department of Health and Ageing to implement Stage II of accreditation of diagnostic imaging services. This was a significant development for us as it expanded the client base and it provided us with continuity to our health accreditation programme.
• Throughout 2010 - 2011 we continued to build our presence in the Victoria auditing disability service providers.
• In April 2011 we were selected to lead the new Queensland Government initiative for integrated standards and implemented the demonstration pilot in the Human Services Quality Framework.
• In June 2011 we moved office to accommodate our growth and increased number of staff.
• In February 2012 interim approval as an Accreditation Agency for the National Safety & Quality in Health Services Standards was awarded to us by the Australian Commission on Safety & Quality in Health Care Services.
• In May 2012 we launched the HDAA Mark for use by organisations certified by HDAA.
• In August 2012 the Victoria Department of Human Services entered a Deed of Agreement with us as an Independent review Body of the Department of Human Service Standards (DHSS).

While we have grown, today, we are still a boutique provider of certification and accreditation services and our path of discovery; our passion of "Helping organisations to achieve better futures" so that our destiny of Safer Healthcare - More Inclusive Communities remains. In so doing, our vision is to contribute to making our healthcare organisations and communities stronger. Our belief and passion sustains us in contributing to help services to reach their potential every day.