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Transparency
Nothing to hide. Every rule ASF applies to itself, published.
Code of Conduct · Independence · Complaints · Registry · Internal management system aligned with ISO/IEC 17011 · Data protection
An accreditation body asks organizations to open themselves to scrutiny. It should expect the same. This page collects every policy and procedure ASF applies to its own conduct, governance and management system — including the ones that say plainly what ASF cannot yet do. ASF’s founder also runs a publishing house, an academy and a media network; the documents below exist because that overlap invites fair scrutiny, and the answer to fair scrutiny is publication.
01
Conduct, independence and the public's rights
Conduct
Seven principles binding everyone who acts on ASF's behalf. The single governing authority for conflict-of-interest rules.
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Independence
No paid ASF service — training, publishing, membership support — ever influences an accreditation decision. Names the affiliated ventures this applies to.
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Speak up
A protected channel for anyone inside ASF to raise a concern, with anti-retaliation guarantees.
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Complaints
File a complaint about an accredited organization — or about ASF itself. Case reference on receipt, fixed timelines, anonymity honoured wherever possible.
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Registry
What ASF publishes about every accredited, suspended and withdrawn organization. Withdrawals stay visible.
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Safety
Serious adverse events are self-reported by accredited organizations, non-punitively, and aggregated statistics are published.
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02
ASF's internal management system
Aligned with ISO/IEC 17011 — the international standard for bodies that accredit others. These are the procedures ASF runs on itself.
ISO/IEC 17011
ASF audits its own processes — distinct from external review and from management review.
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ISO/IEC 17011
The annual leadership review of the whole system, its inputs and required outputs.
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ISO/IEC 17011
How ASF records, analyses and corrects its own process failures.
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ISO/IEC 17011
The rule behind every reference code, version number and control block.
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ISO/IEC 17011
Competence requirements and continuing development for ASF's own staff and volunteers.
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ISO/IEC 17011
What may be delegated externally and what never may be. Accreditation decisions are never outsourced.
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Resilience
Internal policy on revenue diversification, reserves and liability cover so that no single funder can shape an outcome.
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Continuity
Emergency, planned and strategic succession for the Chair, Board and key functions.
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Direction
Three phases, stated plainly, including what ASF cannot yet do.
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03
Data protection and contracts
GDPR
GDPR lawful basis for each processing activity, retention schedule, data-subject rights, transfers between Paris, Geneva and Tbilisi.
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Security
Data classification, access control, and the 72-hour breach-notification duty.
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Contract
The signable agreement used with surveyors, contractors and partners.
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04
Advisory Services (paid) — disclosed, priced, separated
Many hospitals cannot afford a full-time accreditation coordinator. Refusing to help does not make ASF more independent — it leaves under-resourced organizations further behind. So ASF offers paid advisory services, and publishes exactly how: open prices, organizational separation from every accreditation decision, and a three-year cooling-off between advising an organization and surveying it.
Statement
The plain-language public statement — what ASF sells, what it never sells, and how anyone can check.
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Policy
The governing rule: advisory work and accreditation decisions are organizationally separated.
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Catalogue
Dedicated coordinator, training, Patient Voice Package, publications, environmental monitoring — every reference price published in full.
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Partners
What a partner organization must meet to deliver ASF advisory services in its own country, and how it is reviewed.
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Where ASF stands on ISO 9001
ASF’s own management system is aligned with ISO/IEC 17011, the standard for accreditation bodies. ASF does not issue ISO 9001 certificates. Doing so requires a separate accreditation under ISO/IEC 17021-1, which ASF does not hold. The path is staged in the Strategic Plan — crosswalk first, then non-exclusive referral partnerships with existing certifiers (no commission to ASF, no bearing on accreditation), and only later ASF’s own certification capacity. No date is committed, deliberately.
Read the feasibility roadmap →
What is not published, and why
Two things stay confidential by policy: the institutional file of each organization under assessment (survey findings, evidence, the organization’s own data), and the identity of anyone who raises a concern through a protected channel. Everything about how ASF itself works — its rules, its audits, its decisions on status — is public. Annual reports from 2020 onward and annual summaries of ASF’s own internal audits and management reviews will be added here as each cycle completes.
Something you think we should publish and haven't?
Ask. If it is not confidential by one of the two policies above, the default answer is yes.
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