CHU de Montceau: “AFAQ ISO 9001 certification to perpetuate operating theater expertise” – Testimonial
Graziella Aboudou, Quality Director, and Elisabeth Jeantin, Quality Assurance Manager, Sterilization Department, CHU Montceau, share their motivations for deploying the ISO 9001 quality management standard and obtaining certification.
Since September 2014, at the initiative of the facility’s new director Jean Dominique Marquier, the sterilization department at the Centre Hospitalier de Monceau-les-Mines has embarked on an ISO 9001 certification process. “We chose to start with sterilization in order to strengthen our processes and tangibly enhance the value of this essential activity in the operating theatre, thereby reinforcing its expertise and increasing the trust placed in it by users,” explains Graziella Aboudou, Quality Director.
By law, the department must comply with good sterilization practices. So he already had experience in the quality field. The department’s team of agents, the healthcare manager and Elisabeth Jeantin, the department’s quality assurance manager, were made aware of the approach, which began at the end of 2013. “We revisited the existing quality system, following the ISO 9001 model,” says Elisabeth Jeantin. Interpreting the criteria is not always straightforward, however, so the hospital center enlisted the help of an outside firm for one day a month starting in April 2014.
As a result, quality reviews have become more frequent and more thorough. “Professionals have become aware of the importance of the customer-supplier relationship in service quality, and that they are entitled to expect the best from them,” concludes Graziella Aboudou.
HIGHLIGHTS OF AFAQ ISO 9001 CERTIFICATION
- Decompartmentalize departments and improve inter-departmental communication .
- Highlight customer/supplier relations within the plant.
- Formalize organization and operating procedures.
- Enhancing the professionalism of our teams.
OUTLOOK
“Although it takes a lot of energy to set up the process, in the long term we want to have our surgical care certified, and why not our hospital as a whole in the longer term?”
