“The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…”
Theodore
Roosevelt
My heart goes out to those in the
Management Representative roles within healthcare organizations. Many of you have literally spent years getting
your organizations to the point where they are just now comfortable with the
ISO 9001:2008 standard, and wouldn’t you know it, someone kicks sand in your
eyes. When you open your eyes again, you are confronted with a brand new
standard. You’ve paid your dues, trained
your leadership staff, educated your management staff, communicated to
employees and trained auditors. Now you can look back and finally say, “I’ve
come through it!” You’ve committed no
crime and yet now that September 2015 is upon us and the inevitable release of
ISO 9001:2015 looms on the horizon, I know what you’re thinking. “I’ve served my sentence.”
I
truly do feel your pain and am living through it with you, only a few months
ahead of schedule. I can imagine some of
the questions that must be going through your mind. “How do I get trained on this new standard?”
“How do I train leadership, managers, employees and my auditors on this new
standard?” “How do I make this fit into
my budget for 2016?” “Where do I find
the time not only for myself, but all of the other staff?” “Where can I even get my hands on the new
standard?” If you are hyperventilating,
take a deep breath and allow me to put a little perspective on what’s to
come.
Although the new standard has raised the bar
on organizations wanting to set themselves above and beyond the competition,
not everything has changed. So what has
stayed the same? Many of the day to day
operations of patient care and support processes have remained relatively
unchanged. Many of the performance
requirements, for monitoring, measurement, analysis and improvement (although
increased slightly at the foundation) remain true to the previous
standard. Internal audits are still
required. So in a nutshell, you don’t
have to start from ground zero and go through the whole process again, and you
don’t have to spend a fortune.
ICH has developed the ISO 9001:2015 Standard
Overview Champion Course for those organizations who have already gone through
the process of developing a quality management system to the requirements of
the ISO 9001:2008 standard. This course
is designed to train the participants to a complete knowledge of the new and
existing requirements of the new standard.
It is an excellent course for those Internal Auditors who are now very
familiar with auditing and need to know what the new requirements bring to the
organization and how to audit to the new requirements. Are you looking to train yourself as the
management representative/”ISO Champion”?
Do you need to bring your department managers up to speed on their role
in the organization? At ICH, we have
specifically designed this course to be a compliment to what your organization
already has in place. The Champion Class
is a very concise course over two days to give you and your entire organization
the knowledge base they need to move forward in the development of their
management system.
I know that ISO 9001:2008 has not been a
bed of roses or a pleasure cruise, but the good news is that you are not
starting from scratch when you implement the revised version. Consider the new standard a challenge and get
started today. If you don’t know where
to start, give us a call. It is our passion and privilege to support hospitals
on this journey.
Woody Conway
