Public health laboratory gets ISO certification |18 August 2005

Lab technicians and the Department of Health hope that the process of achieving an ISO certified quality management system will translate into greater customer satisfaction.

Terence Coopoosamy, the director general of the Seychelles Bureau of Standards (SBS), which granted the certification, presented SPHL senior technologist Marianna Toussaint with the certificate on Wednesday in a small ceremony at Victoria Hospital, attended by Minister of Health and Social Services Vincent Meriton and other senior health officials.

The SPHL performs a wide range of tasks at the hospital, including survey work and testing for food, water and sexually transmitted diseases.

Ms Toussaint, who is the SPHL’s management representative for ISO certification, said the decision in May last year to embark on the ISO process was made “with customer satisfaction in mind.”

She pointed to quicker test results, fewer mistakes and better overall consistency as the aims of ISO certification.

While no system is perfect, Ms Toussaint added, ISO “allows for organisations to continually improve.”

SPHL director Philip Palmyre, speaking at the ceremony, reiterated that the lab would not be free of flaws after certification. He cited quality and accountability in patient care and the management of files as areas in which there was “always room for improvement.”

He attributed the lab’s ISO achievement to his staff’s hard work, noting “meetings after meetings and document writing and re-writing,” as well as the encouragement of principal secretary Maurice Loustau Lalanne.

An assessment for the ISO certification was carried out on August 3 by SBS auditors.

Amy Quatre of the SBS noted that the certification would “enhance customer confidence” in terms of the lab’s consistency and quality.

She said she hoped the SPHL would continue to maintain the system, and that other departments in the ministry would see its benefits and take up ISO certification as a goal.