We obtained ISO 9001 recertification
At IDIAPJGol we have passed the certification process of our Quality Management System, based on the international standard UNE-EN-ISO 9001. After a thorough audit, obtaining the certification shows that we are doing it well: it is a seal of outward appearance and internal pride.
Photography: iStock. Bussarin Rinchumrus
IDIAPJGol has had ISO 9001 Quality since 2011, but its recertification has entailed reviewing and auditing all the Institute's key processes: advice and support in project management research, clinical trials, training, as well as all support processes (Purchasing, Human Resources, IT, Communication, Infrastructure...). A process that has been led by the director of the Corporate Resources Area, Sandra Illán, as the Quality technician, but which has directly involved many people from the different units and departments.
"The certification process has brought many changes and improvements in my department", explains Human Resources technician Laia Álvaro. "In the beginning, describing everything we did was a lot of work, but later it helped us to simplify procedures. Having a person from outside your department bring you new visions and question your methodologies from a constructive point of view, helps you to do things well. In addition, with the ISO, a work vision is adopted to keep improving year after year."
What is 'Quality'?
On paper, managing Quality involves documenting all the work processes of an organization: describing them, analyzing their risks and opportunities, establishing indicators and applying a system to introduce improvements year after year. But Quality is much more than that: it is a way of focusing our work. It is to ensure that everything we do, we do it efficiently and effectively. It is to seek the satisfaction of our 'clients', the researchers, with the services we provide. And, above all, it is to try to improve every day in our mission: to transfer to society the value of research in Primary Care and generate improvements in people's health and well-being.
Why is it so important?
Having a Quality management system in place is essential in highly regulated sectors such as healthcare or pharmaceuticals. Thus, ISO 9001 makes it easier for us to access high-impact research, clinical trials, international projects or European funds. It is also an essential requirement to be a CERCA centre, a level of accreditation we are working on and which will allow us to further expand and internationalize our research and innovation in Primary Care.
Continuous improvement
Quality management is based on applying the PDCA methodology for continuous improvement: Plan – Do – Check – Act – Adjust. In this sense, for example, every year we carry out a satisfaction survey of all our customers and employees to find out how they use our services, what is their opinion about them and how they think we could improve. The results help us to propose several improvements.
Last October 24, a lunch was organized with the audited staff to celebrate the re-certification of ISO 9001 for another three years.
