[Merits of acquiring ISO15189 accreditation]

In Japan, an ISO15189 accreditation system was started in 2005. To date, 47 hospitals have been accredited. In this session, I will present the merits of acquiring accreditation regarding ISO15189 based on our experience. Our hospital has 263 beds. The Clinical Examination Section consists of 12 staff (including 5 part-time workers): 7 in change of sample examination and 5 in charge of physiological examination. The annual number of samples is approximately 150,000. Samples collected on health checkups account for 90%. To improve the quality and service, assessment by third persons has been positively utilized in our hospital. Accreditation regarding ISO9001, ISO14001, ISO27001, privacy mark, hospital function assessment, the functional assessment of "ningen-dock"/health checkup hospitals, labor/hygiene service function assessment, and ISO15189 has been acquired. Patients may not recognize ISO. So, it must be utilized, considering that the acquisition of accreditation is not a goal but a starting point. Furthermore, cost-performance should be improved to achieve utilization-related merits. It is important to not only acquire accreditation but also help clinical staff and patients become aware of some changes/merits. Patients may consult a hospital for the following reasons: confidence in the hospital, and the staffs kind/polite attitudes. Long-term management strategies should be established without pursuing only short-term profits. I will introduce several merits of acquiring accreditation regarding ISO15189. Initially, incidental conditions for bids and appeal points include accreditation regarding ISO15189. Our corporation has participated in some competitive bids regarding health checkup business. In some companies, the bid conditions included ISO acquisition. In our hospital, clinical trials have been positively carried out. For participation in trials, hospitals must pass an institutional examination. However, ISO acquisition facilitates the preparation of documents, leading to successful results. The staffs consciousness has also change. I feel that they try to manage samples from blood collection until reporting laboratory data and interpret laboratory findings strictly. With ISO9001 and ISO14001 activities in our corporation, improvements in consciousness and service have increased the number of patients. Although items other than ISO also improved, ISO played an important role. We could participate in an international collaborative study, "Regional Difference in Laboratory Data and Establishment of Common Reference Ranges", which was mainly designed by Prof. Ichihara, Medical Research Department, Yamaguchi University Graduate School. This also resulted from ISO15189 acquisition. Furthermore, the Japanese Society of "Ningen-Dock" selected Dr. Yoshida, the chairman of the board of directors in our corporation, as a chairman of a meeting that will be held by this society in Asahikawa in 2010 as a result of ISO15189 acquisition by the Clinical Examination Section of our hospital, that is, high-level consciousness. It may be the first case for a middle-/small-scale general hospital to lead a meeting held by such a prestigious society. Thus, I have introduced the merits of ISO15189 acquisition. I hope that our experience will contribute to future ISO activities.