What is the term for agreement between auditors on documentation outcomes?

• A. Data validity
• B. Sampling bias
• C. Process capability
• D. Inter-rater reliability

Answer: (D)

Agreement among auditors on documentation outcomes is captured by inter-rater reliability. This measures how consistently different evaluators apply the same criteria to the same documents. When auditors review records independently, high inter-rater reliability means they reach the same conclusions about documentation quality or compliance, indicating clear, well-applied criteria. Low reliability signals ambiguity or subjectivity in the assessment process. It’s often quantified with statistics like Cohen’s kappa for two raters, Fleiss’ kappa for multiple raters, or intraclass correlation for numeric scores. The other terms describe different concepts: data validity is about accuracy of the data itself, sampling bias is about selection bias in the sample, and process capability concerns whether a process can meet specifications.