Driving improvements and raising efficiency

The ISO 9001 quality management system standard has been one of the key standards for quality control in business for many years, and has been credited with improving management and work practices in many organisations, with customer satisfaction being a key output indicator. There is plenty of evidence that operating efficiencies can be made and costs reduced by adherence to the standard’s principles. Furthermore, intra-organisational communication is often improved and staff morale raised. Last November a new version of the international quality standard was introduced – ISO 9001:2008, which supersedes the earlier 2000 version. This article explains the process required to gain certification, and briefly discusses the successful application of the new standard to a hospital facilities and estates organisation, the estates department at Walsall’s Manor Hospital in the West Midlands. The large NHS acute hospital is currently at the centre of a £162 million redevelopment scheme due for completion in 2010 which will see a range of “outdated” facilities replaced with brand new buildings.

Management commitment vital

A cornerstone of ISO 9001 is the securing of top management’s commitment to the process to ensure both that as strategic an approach as possible is taken, and that the results of the organisation’s performance review are fed back into processes and work practices to achieve the objective of continual improvement of the quality management system (QMS). David Lawson, director of estates and hospital redevelopment at the Manor Hospital, and his deputy director, Lincoln Dawkin, showed just such commitment when they pursued the quality goal for their organisation late last year. The Manor Hospital’s management team saw the introduction of the new version of the standard both as a timely opportunity to seek ISO certification, and as a vehicle for their drive for quality enhancement. The rationale behind this decision was understandable; it was because the ISO 9001 quality management system provides not only a structure defining how work is undertaken, but also identifies the desired outcomes, and specifies the controls to be imposed, to ensure these outcomes are achieved. A QMS that properly conforms to the ISO 9001:2008 principles has the potential to reduce sickness levels by improving working conditions, reduce costs via improvements in efficiency, cut the number of liability claims, and increase the level of customer satisfaction through improved service levels. If the premise is that the “satisfied customer” can be not only the patient, but equally the organisation’s visitors and staff, then improved outputs are potentially beneficial to both internal and external customers, particularly if one considers improvements in the “patient journey”, and customer satisfaction, as key outputs.