Help Define the Future of Healthcare Industry Competency
Every day, hundreds of thousands of non-hospital professionals enter healthcare facilities to support patient care. They include Healthcare Industry Representatives (HCIRs), Clinical Specialists, Medical Device Representatives, and Pharmaceutical Representatives — as well as supplier representatives and service vendors who may never enter an operating room, such as facilities and trades professionals, IT specialists, and administrative support personnel.
Despite their important role, there is no nationally validated competency framework defining the knowledge, skills, and responsibilities required to safely and effectively perform these duties.
We believe that should change.
Join us as we work to define clear expectations for how non-hospital professionals perform operational work inside healthcare facilities.
You cannot write requirements for a profession that has never been defined. Before competency can be certified — or standardized — someone has to establish, through evidence and consensus rather than assumption, what the role actually is: the tasks performed, the knowledge and skills they demand, and how critical each one is to safe practice.
That is what this Job Task Analysis does, and it is why we are seeking subject matter experts now — before requirements are written, not after.
A national panel of subject matter experts establishes the evidence base: what competent practice by non-hospital personnel in healthcare facilities actually requires. This is where your expertise shapes everything that follows.
The validated competency framework becomes the foundation for a defensible examination blueprint and an accredited personnel certification program.
The JTA's published, evidence-based definition of the role is available to HWASC's standards consensus body as an evidentiary input for BSR/HW1-202X, Certification of Non-Hospital Personnel Performing Job Tasks in Healthcare Facilities — so the standard's requirements rest on evidence, not assumption.
Healthcare organizations are responsible for ensuring that individuals who support patient care are competent to perform the work they are assigned.
The Healthcare Workforce Access Standards Commission (HWASC) is launching a national initiative to identify the competencies required of Healthcare Industry Representatives through a formal Job Task Analysis (JTA) using nationally recognized psychometric principles.
The results will provide the evidence-based foundation for the development of an ISO/IEC 17024 personnel certification program and will support healthcare organizations in advancing:
A Job Task Analysis is the internationally accepted process used to define a profession.
Subject Matter Experts work together to identify:
The tasks performed by competent professionals
The knowledge required to perform those tasks
The skills necessary for safe practice
The frequency and criticality of each responsibility
The competencies expected of an entry-level professional
Bring together nationally recognized experts representing:
Together, these experts will define the profession through a structured, evidence-based consensus process.
Two ways to help define the future of the profession.
We are seeking experienced professionals who want to help define the future of the Healthcare Industry Representative profession.
As a Founding Subject Matter Expert, you will contribute your expertise to a national initiative focused on competency, patient safety, and workforce excellence.
Apply to Participate →We are also seeking organizations committed to improving healthcare quality and patient safety.
Founding Sponsors will support the independent development of the Job Task Analysis, including psychometric expertise, workshop facilitation, national validation, and publication of the competency framework.
It supports an independent, evidence-based process that benefits the healthcare community as a whole.
Become a Founding Sponsor →Understanding how certification fits into today's healthcare access landscape.
The framework addresses non-hospital professionals who perform operational work inside healthcare facilities—not only those who work in or near clinical settings.
This includes Healthcare Industry Representatives, Clinical Specialists, Medical Device Representatives, and Pharmaceutical Representatives, as well as supplier representatives and service vendors who may never enter an operating room—such as facilities and trades professionals (plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians), IT specialists, and administrative support personnel.
Wherever non-hospital personnel work inside a healthcare facility, clear competency expectations support patient safety, security, and operational quality.
Three terms, three different functions: Credentialing is the process of collecting and verifying credentials. Certification is the assessment process that confirms competence. Verification is confirming that a credential is valid and current.
Credentialing verifies documents and compliance. When a healthcare industry representative is credentialed to enter a facility, an organization confirms that required records are in place—such as immunizations, background checks, training attestations, and facility policy acknowledgments. Credentialing answers the question: “Has this person met the entry requirements of this facility?”
Certification under ISO/IEC 17024 answers a different question: “Has this individual demonstrated, through a valid and reliable assessment, the knowledge and skills required for competent practice?” Certification is built on a formal Job Task Analysis and a psychometrically defensible examination, and it attests to competence—not just compliance.
Both serve important purposes. Credentialing confirms requirements are met; certification validates professional competency.
No. Vendor credentialing plays an important role in facility access, and this initiative is designed to complement it—not replace it.
A nationally validated competency framework and ISO/IEC 17024 certification give healthcare organizations and credentialing programs something that does not exist today: an evidence-based, independently validated standard of competency they can reference. Vendor credentialing organizations are invited to participate in the Job Task Analysis as stakeholders in this shared goal.
Elsewhere in healthcare, verification and competency are anchored to recognized national standards. For example, credentials verification for practitioners is performed by organizations operating under recognized third-party oversight, and clinical professions are defined by validated certification and licensure frameworks.
No equivalent framework currently exists for healthcare industry representatives. There is no nationally accepted standard for vendor credentialing—each institution defines its own requirements, so expectations change from facility to facility. This is not a shortcoming of any credentialing organization; without a national standard to reference, variation is inevitable.
The result is a shared burden across the healthcare system. Representatives face inconsistent and duplicative requirements across the facilities they serve. Facilities have no assurance that credentials accepted elsewhere reflect a common competency expectation. And credentialing programs have no validated benchmark to anchor their requirements to.
A nationally validated competency framework gives every party a single evidence-based reference point: facilities can align their expectations to it, credentialing programs can incorporate it, and professionals can carry one recognized attestation of competence wherever they work. The Job Task Analysis is the first step in closing that gap—through evidence and consensus rather than assumptions.
ISO/IEC 17024 is the international standard for bodies that certify persons. It establishes rigorous requirements for how a personnel certification program must be developed and operated—including a formal Job Task Analysis, a defensible examination blueprint, impartiality safeguards, and independent oversight of certification decisions.
Certification programs accredited to ISO/IEC 17024 are recognized nationally and internationally as valid, reliable attestations of professional competence.
No. This initiative is not an ANSI standards development activity and will not create or revise an ANSI standard. It is an independent subject matter expert process designed to develop an ISO/IEC 17024 Job Task Analysis. All participants contribute as individual subject matter experts, and the process follows accepted certification development and governance practices, guided by psychometric methodology.
This initiative is about more than certification. It is about creating a nationally validated competency framework for professionals who enter healthcare facilities every day in support of patient care.
If you believe competency, accountability, and patient safety should be defined through evidence and consensus—not assumptions—we invite you to join us.
Together, we can help define the profession and strengthen patient safety for the future of healthcare.