Are you considering ISO certification?
Are you considering ISO certification?
ISO certification is process-, customer-, and improvement-focused, says Jerilyn Yama, RN, BS, CPHQ, president of Audi-Qual, an Ohio-based firm specializing in quality auditing and consulting.
So why are only a handful of U.S. hospitals ISO certified? Yama, a certified lead auditor for ISO, says this may be about to change.
In 2000, Yama wrote a series of articles for a publication of the Ohio Association for Healthcare Quality to spark interest for ISO in her health care colleagues. "There was little response, because I believe the timing was premature," she says.
Now, however, some health care organizations are investigating certification other than that provided by The Joint Commission. With more than 20 years' experience with Joint Commission standards and surveys, Yama offers the following reasons: "First, Joint Commission standards have historically been cumbersome, very prescriptive, and difficult to implement," says Yama. "ISO requirements are simpler, less prescriptive, and more practical to implement. Second, ISO certification is less costly than Joint Commission accreditation."
Recent data indicate that an estimated 44 health care organizations had obtained ISO certification at the end of 2006. Approximately 10 of those were hospital organizations, several of which had more than one facility certified — for example, Detroit Medical Center has seven hospitals certified to ISO. Yama notes that the Cleveland Clinic's surgical division is also ISO certified. Some physician practices have chosen ISO certification as well. "The word has gotten out," she says.
Bottom line is improved
Many health care organizations opting for ISO certification continue to maintain Joint Commission accreditation for several reasons. At this time, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) does not routinely recognize ISO certification alone for reimbursement. Acquiring deemed status with CMS is a necessary part of the process, and is very time-consuming and labor intensive.
Secondly, Joint Commission accreditation has always been the health care trademark of quality with which the public is familiar, while ISO, the "new guy on the block" is not usually associated with health care. "Benefits can thus be realized by maintaining both," says Yama.
Yama has performed numerous audits to the ISO 9000:1994 and the revised 9001:2000 standards over the past 10 years, among them a hospital consortium in Kentucky and a CMS oversight body in Pennsylvania.
"ISO provides a framework which undergirds the entire organization, allowing it to define its own methodology for fulfilling the standard's requirements," says Yama. "It focuses on the organization's processes and how to improve their effectiveness and efficiency. The ultimate goals are improvement, customer satisfaction, and financial stability."
When all levels of an organization are committed to the successful implementation of ISO, improvements in the "bottom line" are realized as a direct result of more effective, efficient processes, says Yama. "With the astronomical rise in health care costs, this is particularly vital to an organization's fiscal soundness."
[For more information, contact:
Jerilyn Yama, RN, BS, CPHQ, President, Audi-Qual, 3254 Camden Rue, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44223. Phone: (330) 923-9013. E-mail: [email protected].]
ISO certification is process-, customer-, and improvement-focused, says Jerilyn Yama, RN, BS, CPHQ, president of Audi-Qual, an Ohio-based firm specializing in quality auditing and consulting.Subscribe Now for Access
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