Dr Balwant Singh’s Hospital recently attained the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2015 certification, making it the first local healthcare provider to achieve the quality management standard.
The announcement was made yesterday afternoon during a press conference at the East Street, Georgetown hospital.
Dr Madhu Singh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dr. Balwant Singh’s Hospital, said that the accomplishment, which is part of the hospital’s bid to revolutionise the country’s healthcare delivery system, came as the facility celebrated 15 years of existence.
The ISO 9001:2015 standard is the international standard for quality management systems.
It was noted that the ISO certification audit was conducted by Perry Johnson Registrars Inc, an ISO certifying company from the United States.
The services audited during the ISO certification process included Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Nephrology and Dialysis, ICU services, Emergency Services, Assisted Reproductive Technology, including IVF, Ophthalmology, Dentistry, Radiology, Paediatrics and Neonatology, and Cardiology.
“What started as a casual conversation in my office has led us here today as the first hospital (in Guyana) to be internationally certified… We are delighted to have received the news of our ISO certification. We did this in order to ensure that we are providing the highest quality of healthcare at our facility in keeping with the goal we set ourselves from the very beginning 15 years ago. There was no requirement that we do this but we did it anyway because we believe that it is important for us and for the patients who look at us to care for them,” Dr Singh explained.
She related that since its existence, the hospital has grown from a lab into a multi-specialty hospital.
“….Of note, we are the only hospital that complies with the regulation that mandates direct supervision of dialysis patients by a nephrologist. We also offer high-end diagnostics, such as MRIs and CT scans..,” Dr Singh noted.
It was also noted that the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) played a critical role during the ISO certification process.
Head of Business Support Services at GNBS Rodlyn Semple told reporters that over the past seven months the Bureau, through its consultancy programme executed by the business support department, provided the technical guidance to aid the hospital to attain its objective of ISO 9001.
The goal of the GNBS consultancy programme, Semple added, is basically to deliver superlative technical assistance to companies to establish, document and implement management systems for the purposes of certification and accreditation readiness.
The ISO 9001 standard, Semple explained, is used by organizations to demonstrate their ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer as well as statutory and regulatory requirements.
“ISO has been recognized in many industries and over the world in the international standard system for quality management. Today, it has entered the healthcare world as a method to maintain a level of care and safety in hospitals across the national. It is also becoming a mandatory requirement for conducting business and accessing not only national but regional and international markets,” she noted.
