Upon submission to HITRUST, all assessments undergo the Check-in process in which HITRUST performs automated QA checks and a high-level manual review of the assessment, accompanying required documents, and webforms (Organization Information, Scope of the Assessment, Factors, VRA, Management Representation Letter, Test Plans, External Assessor Time Sheet, QA Checklist, and Audits and Assessments Utilized) to determine if the assessment is ready for a HITRUST QA Analyst to review.
Depending on the results of HITRUST’s check-in review, there are three possible outcomes:
- When the results of the check-in review determine that the assessment is ready for a HITRUST QA Analyst to review, HITRUST accepts the assessment, and it enters the Pending Quality Assurance phase.
- When the check-in review identifies a small number of potential issues, typically related to the required documents and webforms, HITRUST creates check-in tasks within the assessment for the External Assessor and Assessed Entity to address. After the necessary check-in tasks are created by HITRUST, the assessment enters the Addressing Check-In Tasks phase.
- When the check-in review identifies a larger number of potential issues HITRUST reverts the assessment back to the Performing Validation phase and gives the External Assessor and Assessed Entity a set of pre-QA quality recommendations to use to address potential issues. In the event this occurs:
13.10.1 A workbook outlining the pre-QA quality recommendations is uploaded by HITRUST into MyCSF, and the External Assessor and Assessed Entity are notified via email. The External Assessor and Assessed Entity must address the pre-QA quality recommendations and resubmit the assessment.
NOTE: In this scenario, the External Assessor must be careful to ensure that the assessment is resubmitted to HITRUST prior to the Wednesday before the beginning of the reserved QA block. If the assessment is not resubmitted by that date, the assessment’s QA Reservation will be cancelled, and the Assessed Entity will be required to make a new QA reservation.
13.10.2 When the assessment is resubmitted to HITRUST, it will enter the Performing Check-In phase for a second check-in review to occur. If there continues to be a larger number of potential issues during the second check-in, the assessment may enter the Escalated QA Process. For additional information on Escalated QA, see Chapter 14.4 Escalated QA.