Every competency HWASC defines, every requirement its standards establish, traces back to evidence gathered through structured, defensible research.
HWASC's position is simple: competency, accountability, and patient safety should be defined through evidence and consensus — not assumptions. That commitment shapes how we work. Occupational research follows nationally recognized psychometric principles. Subject matter expert input is gathered through structured, facilitated processes. Findings are validated nationally before they become the basis for any requirement.
The result is a defensible chain from data to requirement: research defines the role, the validated framework supports accredited certification, and the published evidence is available to our standards consensus bodies as an evidentiary input.
A national occupational research effort to define, for the first time, the job tasks and competencies of the non-hospital workforce in healthcare facilities.
Subject matter experts identify the tasks actually performed by non-hospital professionals in healthcare facilities — from clinical support to technical product service.
A national, multi-stakeholder SME panel refines the inventory and identifies the knowledge, skills, and abilities each task demands, under psychometric facilitation.
The task and competency framework is validated nationally, with practitioners rating the frequency, importance, and criticality of each responsibility.
The validated results become the competency framework and defensible examination blueprint for ISO/IEC 17024 certification — and an evidentiary input available to standards development.
The Commission publishes white papers and reference materials documenting its analysis of healthcare workforce access, competency verification, and conformity assessment. Two white papers are now available as drafts for public comment: Bridging FDA Medical Device Regulation and CMS Patient Safety Through Clinical Deployment Standards, proposing HWASC-1000, and The Patient Is Asleep, a patient safety inquiry into how instruments, implants, and technical guidance reach the operating room.
Researchers, clinicians, credentialing professionals, and organizations with relevant data or studies are invited to connect with the Commission.