IMPLEMENTING AN ISO 10001-BASED PROMISE IN INPATIENTS CARE

This paper presents the implementation of a Customer Satisfaction Promise (CSP) that requires nurses to introduce themselves and explain the care plan to the patients of a hospital unit in Canada. The CSP implementation, maintenance and improvement activities were based on ISO 10001:2007. Qualitative and quantitative performance data were collected from nurses, the unit manager and patients, and improvement suggestions were made. During the implementation, nurses introduced themselves 95% of the time and explained the care plan 86% of the time. When interviewed, some nurses stated that the CSP was a good reinforcement of a practice already expected of them, which made patients happy, satisfied and more comfortable. Data from a small sample of patients was not adequate in clearly indicating the CSP's performance or improvement, but was useful in validating the survey and the feedback form. To our knowledge, applications of ISO 10001:2007 in health care have not been studied. Furthermore, this paper may be the first example of the integrated use of ISO 10001 and ISO 10002 in health care.