Evaluation of the Accreditation of Occupational Health Services in Norway

Introduction
From 1.1.2010 a bill on public obligatory accreditation system for occupational health services (OHS) in Norway was introduced. In order to be accredited the OHS has must have at least 3 full time OHS professionals, a quality assurance system and be able to document skills in occupational medicine, occupational hygiene, ergonomics, psychosocial work environment and systematic health, environment and safety work. The accreditation is performed by the Labour Inspection Authority and is free of charge to the OHS.

Methods
A web based questionnaire was sent to all the Norwegian occupational health services (OHS) with questions about the experiences with their own accreditation process. We received responses from 241 OHS (75%).

Results
94 % of the OHS had applied for an accreditation. Only 1 % had decided not to apply. 52 % had to make various adjustments in order to seek approval. The most common adaptations were improving the quality system of the OHS (42 %), creating a plan for the development of professional skills (48 %) and increase staffing levels in the occupational hygiene (36 %) and occupational medicine field (37 %). 56 % of the OHS believed that accreditation had led to better quality, and 27 % that the accreditation would lead to a higher price on their own OHS.

Discussion
Most of the Norwegian OHS market is covered by accredited OHS 1 year after the introduction of an accreditation system. More than half of the OHS had to make various adjustments in order to become accredited. This seems to have lead to a better quality of OHS.