| The importance of standards is critical to not only improve the quality of goods and services provided, but it also fosters the potential for growth, cutting cost and the increase of profit. This assertion was made recently by Head of Conformity Assessment at the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS), Ms Candelle Walcott-Bostwick, as she addressed a group of stakeholders.GNBS’ Ms Candelle Walcott-BostwickShe noted that with the requisite standards in place, the credibility of a business can be enhanced, and efficiency can be achieved even as customers’ confidence is boosted.“I am sure we would want the clients utilising our services to say we have been satisfied by the services provided by (for example) this hospital or by this particular entity that we would have visited,” said Walcott-Bostwick. Standards, according to her, in essence serve to improve business processes and increase their efficiency, because the operations are standardised and help to comply with established regulations.At the time,Cheap Jerseys 2018, Walcott-Bostwick was stressing the importance of Standards in health and social care facilities. She explained that in the Management System Standards, there must be awareness of the statutory and regulatory requirements and once people are in care facilities such as the Palms or health facilities,NFL Cheap Jerseys, there is need to ensure that “we are conforming to the regulatory requirements that exist.”Some of the Standards that GNBS have outlined asapplicable for the health care sector, for instance, are the ISO 9001 Standard which defines the requirements for quality. And then there is the Environmental Management System Standard which is the ISO 14001 which,Cheap China Jerseys, according to Walcott-Bostwick, helps to monitor the impact of activities on the environment.“So in the hospital facilities, especially, there is waste that must be monitored to ensure that it conforms with the requirements, because we do not want to have the environment to be polluted,” the GNBS officer explained.With the ISO/IEC 17020 Standard, which is relevant for use by the inspection body, the regulators within the health sector are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that hospitals are meeting certain requirements to operate.In order to adhere to this Standard, Guyana had implemented the Health Facilities Act, which outlines the requirements for hospitals and other health facilities, according to Walcott-Bostwick. Under the guidance of this Act, she pointed out that the Health Ministry is expected to do annual inspection of health facilities.The Act, which addresses the proper disposal of waste, saw health facilities being required to make provision for their waste in order to be licenced to operate.“Similarly,Cheap Jerseys, the social care sector may have standards that such facilities will have to be meeting. As an inspection body if we want to have our results credible and recognised it would be good to implement this Standard,Cheap Baseball Jerseys Authentic,” said Walcott-Bostwick.There is also a national standard for management systems of micro, small and medium size enterprises, which Walcott-Bostwick, said is also a Caricom standard.“This standard enables small businesses to implement quality, environment and occupational health and safety systems…so you have an integrated system at a very basic level at your operation, which will of course streamline what you are doing,” said Walcott-Bostwick.According to her, too, there is a new series of Standards (ISO 10000) which address customer care and even one that speaks to the code of conduct for organisations.“I think this is a standard that all of us can embrace,http://www.theworldsoccersshop.com/Belgium-Jordan-Lukaku-Jersey.html, because it defines a code of conduct for our organisations; how we should operate and conduct ourselves.”As part of the series, the ISO 10003 Standard deals with guidelines for the dispute resolutions external to the organisation.“Many times we have disputes with clients and we want to know how we should address it,NBA Jerseys From China, this Standard defines how that should be done,” said Walcott-Bostwick, as she highlighted that there are guidelines for monitoring and measuring customer satisfaction.“All of us who are operating businesses, how many of us will take time to see what our customers expect of us…Are we meeting those requirements?” she asked.Another new standard that GNBS has been emphasising is the ISO 27001, which deals with information technology of security management systems, according to Walcott-Bostwick.This standard, she underscored, caters to the protection of data; that is, how the confidential information of clients is treated. “With the advent of laws and so forth we need to ensure that the information that we have about our clients is kept secured and not breached,” the Conformity Officer asserted.“So basically Standards provide confidence and ISO has a slogan ‘ISO nickname is confidence’. So whenever we implement Standards it demonstrates that there is confidence in that service that is provided,” she added.Standards in place therefore mean that all related operations embrace a common way of practice. “For example, if you have to register a patient in a hospital there are certain guidelines that have to be met and staff that do that registration will follow those protocols,” Walcott-Bostwick explained.She added that “the equipment purchased for use (at such operations)…we ensure that there are guidelines and requirements for purchasing of equipment. You just don’t go and buy equipment because you see it looks nice. We are going to ensure that we can sustain that equipment,” said Walcott-Bostwick as she stressed the importance of standards in choosing the best supplier. |
