Are you ready for ISO 9000?
Are you ready for ISO 9000?
By Jack Duffy, FHFMA, Consulting Editor
We know DRGs, IPAs, HMOs, and a hundred other abbreviations. So what's an ISO 9000? The term refers to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and represents the highest level of quality management.
ISO certification first became popular in the defense industry, as the federal government sought to ensure the defense products they purchased met the highest standards. This method of quality auditing was adopted by the automobile industry to close the quality gap resulting from competition with the Japanese. From those roots, thousands of American companies have worked diligently to bring their organizations to that quality level.
The question has become, "Is the service industry ready to meet the quality challenge?" The ISO 9000 process differs greatly from our triennial Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations review in that it is pervasive and insidious. It reviews every employee, policy, practice, report, and training process to measure how they are documented, learned, and demonstrated.
Many of our organizations have a multiple-year investment in total quality management, continuous quality improvement, benchmarking, and other quality improvement programs. The capstone to this process could be the ISO 9000 audit. We at ScrippsHealth in San Diego have formed a QUEST (Quality Executive Steering Team) to lead the effort for ISO 9000. If you would like more information on the process or would like track our results over the next two years, contact me by e-mail at [email protected].
(Jack Duffy is corporate director of patient financial services for ScrippsHealth in San Diego.)
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