ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, is made up of members from national standards bodies that create industry-specific standards organizations can voluntarily incorporate into their businesses. ISO 9001:2008 in particular outlines standards for a quality management system.
Shawn Bolouki, CEO of Tulare Regional Medical Center, said he wanted to achieve ISO 9001:2008 certification to provide consistency in the hospital, which in turn would increase quality.
“[The] most important issue is the consistency in the processes,” says Mr. Bolouki. “If you are consistent in processes, you reduce your variation. Then as a result you can accomplish the better outcome.”
The ISO 9001:2008 standard outlines eight principles that help improve processes and increase value by providing a holistic view of business and organization needs: leadership, involvement of people, process approach, system approach to management, continual improvement, factual approach to decision making and mutually beneficial supplier relationships.
Det Norske Veritas Certification, a healthcare accrediting body, issued the ISO certification to Tulare Regional Medical Center after the hospital underwent a three-year process of adopting and incorporating a new quality management system. The process included developing the quality management system to meet the standards of ISO 9001:2008, documenting the process of its implementation, training staff and directors, establishing metrics and demonstrating continual process improvement.
Mr. Bolouki says he has already seen considerable change in the hospital since implementing the new quality management system.
“One of the biggest accomplishments of the quality management system is to remove the barrier and silos that existed among all the units and allowing them to come together and operate as a single organization,” Mr. Bolouki said. “That had impact on our delivery of healthcare and how we took care of the needs of our patients and customers.”
Currently, 60 of the 4,022 hospitals in the country have ISO 9001:2008 certification. In California, five out of 349 have it.
The bottom line for Mr. Bolouki is delivering a quality product to patients and customers.
“At end of the day, I believe every [hospital] CEO, physician and employee, wants to provide quality healthcare for their patients,” he said.
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