RTAC

The Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee (RTAC) is a professional group of the Board of the Fertility Society of Australia.

It is charged with the responsibility of setting standards for the performance of ART through an audited Code of Practice. It also licences an International Version of the Code of Practice for use by certifying bodies in countries outside Australia and New Zealand.

The purposes of the RTAC Codes of Practice are to:

• Promote continuous improvement in the quality of care offered to people accessing fertility treatment
• Provide a framework and set criteria for the auditing process that leads to accreditation of organisations that deliver fertility services
• Ensure the auditing process is carried out in an independent non-adversarial and constructive manner

Fundamental to the delivery of ART services is that patients and their offspring remain the most important consideration in all decisions. Organisations aspire to deliver services in a manner that recognises patients’ cultural and individual beliefs and values, upholds their dignity and privacy, and acknowledges the rights of children born through ART to know their genetic origins and health outcomes.

There are two Codes of Practice:

• Australian and New Zealand Code of Practice
• International Code of Practice

The RTAC Scheme defines the requirements for bodies providing audit and certification to the Codes of Practice.

How does your clinic benefit from RTAC accreditation?

Provides reassurance to your patients that your clinic is compliant with a set of standards that are routinely assessed by certifying bodies.

How Can CPG assist you with achieving RTAC accreditation?

• Complete an application form that will provide us with information on your clinic such as:
• where you are located
• are you a stand-alone clinic or part of a larger group
• how many staff members
• ART procedures performed
• Sign an agreement with CPG to conduct audits

The accreditation process

You will be assigned an audit team, one of whom must have technical expertise in the field of ART. In some instances this may be one person.

If you are a new ART Unit the accreditation can be a two or three stage process:

1. Have a gap analysis completed (optional)
2. Stage 1 audit (documentation review)
3. Stage 2 audit – this is conducted onsite prior to you commencing services but only when all proposed equipment for use, in particular laboratory and sterilisation equipment has been validated

Following your Stage 2 audit, where there are no non-conformances, a report will be completed and forwarded to RTAC who will issue a RTAC Licence for six months. For a new ART Unit a further onsite visit is undertaken to verify implementation of all processes.

Surveillance audits will be undertaken annually (unless regulatory bodies specify otherwise).