MSI's ISO 7101 Service User Access

ISO 7101 Service User Access Procedure Template and Guide

$149

A complete, editable ISO 7101:2023 service user Access, Entry and Provision procedure template and guide for healthcare organizations. from first contact to discharge. 22 pages, written as a completed worked example — replace the bracketed values with your own. Microsoft Word.

The people you turned away are already service users.
ISO 7101 Clause 3.28 defines a service user as a person who could or does receive the service. That conditional puts everyone you redirected at the front desk, declined by phone, or lost from a waiting list inside your management system — before registration, and before your record system creates anything at all.

What is actually in the document

One procedure covering the whole service user journey, from the moment a person first approaches the organization to the moment they are discharged. ISO 7101 has no clause called intake, triage or admission — the obligation is assembled across the definition at 3.28, access to care at 5.5, service user communication at 7.4.2 and provision of services at 8.9. Nothing in the standard tells you to join them. This file joins them, in the order the obligations actually arise.

  • 22pages, editable Word
  • 25obligations cross-referenced
  • 10entry gates before care begins
  • 8maturity elements scored
State the denominator next to the number. Clause 9.1.2 e) requires wait times as defined by the organization — which means you own the definition, and therefore the population it was taken over. A median computed across accepted referrals removes everyone you redirected or declined before the arithmetic starts. This procedure requires the denominator to be stated wherever the wait time is reported.

Three things healthcare organizations get wrong

01 · The record starts at registration

Intake procedures begin where the patient administration system begins, because that is where a record first exists. Under 3.28 the obligation began earlier. Clause 7.4.2 b) requires enquiries to be handled including any actions taken — and the enquiry that ended in a redirection is precisely the one nothing downstream needs, so nothing downstream keeps it. MSI has not yet seen an intake process that captured it by default.

02 · The wait time is measured over the wrong population

A stable median wait reaching management review reads as an access result. It is a throughput result. The mechanism by which access fails — people not getting in — deletes them from the measure, so a worsening catchment problem shows up as a flat number. The correction is one line on the report, and it is usually the line that opens the conversation.

03 · Consent is evidenced by a signature

Clause 8.9 i) requires informed consent obtained in such a manner that the service user clearly understands. A signature records that a form was presented. It does not evidence understanding, which is the thing the clause actually asks for — and 8.10.5 f) names the moments where it matters most: before procedures requiring consent, at care transitions, and in communication about medication.

What’s included

  • A complete procedure — sixteen numbered sections following the journey rather than clause order, editable Microsoft Word
  • An obligation-start table — six stages from declared mandate to discharge, each with the clause that attaches at that point
  • A clause cross-reference to sub-letter level — 8.9 a) through 8.9 l) mapped individually, not as a block
  • Access barriers by type — geographic, financial, waiting time, linguistic, disability-related and cultural, each with an owner and a record
  • Wait-time definitions with denominators — seven monitored measures, each stating the population it is taken over
  • Exception and contingency paths — seven situations with the escalation named, including the person you cannot see in the clinical timeframe
  • An eight-element maturity matrix across four levels, scored against a busy period rather than a quiet one
  • A records table with no blanks, with retention aligned to clinical record rules where relevant
  • Appendices A to C — the Enquiry and Access Decision Log with a fixed decision taxonomy, the Service User Entry Record with ten gated elements, and a work instruction with a worked example

Every appendix, form and worked example is part of the document. Nothing is sold separately.

Who it’s for

Healthcare organizations implementing or maintaining ISO 7101 — hospitals, outpatient clinics, day-surgery units, community and speciality services — and the quality leads who have to produce an accessibility input for management review that says something. Also for consultants who need one document covering the journey rather than four covering fragments of it.

Not sure where you stand? The free Access and Entry Maturity Check scores your process across eight elements in about ten minutes, and your score appears without entering anything.

Questions

Is this the same as the Leadership and Governance file?

No, and they are built to work together. Leadership and Governance covers access to care at 5.5 as a governance obligation — whether leadership is accountable for equitable access at all. This file produces the record that lets them see it. Buy the leadership file if your question is who owns access; buy this one if your question is what actually happens when someone calls.

We already have an admissions procedure. What does this add?

An admissions procedure starts at admission. This starts at the point ISO 7101 says your obligation starts, which is earlier — at the declared mandate and the first approach. The sections from registration forward may duplicate what you have. Sections 6.1 through 6.3 and Appendix A almost certainly do not, and they are where the accessibility input at 9.3.2 g) comes from.

Does the enquiry log mean logging every phone call?

It means logging every approach seeking care, with the action taken and a reason drawn from a fixed list. Appendix A is deliberately built to hold every enquiry rather than only the declined ones — a log containing only refusals becomes a complaints record and attracts the defensiveness that goes with one. Logging everything makes a decline a row among rows, which is the only version that survives a busy front desk.

Is this a template or a finished procedure?

Both, deliberately. It is written as a filled-in worked example so you can see what each element looks like when done properly, with bracketed placeholders wherever a value is genuinely yours to set. You are editing a working document rather than filling in a hollow outline.

What format is it?

Editable Microsoft Word (.docx). The license permits the buying organization to adapt and adopt it across its own sites and issue it to employees, contractors, auditors, regulators and accreditation bodies, and permits consultants to adapt it for engagements they deliver.

Will this satisfy an accreditation assessment?

A procedure is not assessed; an organization is. What this gives you is a procedure that addresses every obligation across the journey with a named owner and a named record, and a cross-reference that shows an assessor where each one lives. Conformity is demonstrated by implementation and evidence. Unfilled placeholders are unmet requirements, so fill them.

We would rather be invoiced than pay by card.

That is fine. Call MSI at 760-434-9141 and ask for Diana, and we will raise an invoice.