The Hospital in Akureyri (SAk) received very good reviews from the international accreditation company Det Norske Veritas (DNV-GL), which recently completed a detailed audit of three operational aspects of the hospital.

DNV is a certifier of the international certification DNV GL Healthcare, which is a quality standard for hospitals, as well as ISO9001, which is a quality management standard. The company is one of the most powerful in its field in the world. A full audit of all SAk's activities is carried out every three years, but in between there is an audit of individual aspects of SAk's activities.

SAk first received DNV GL Healthcare certification in 2015 and ISO9001 certification in 2019, the first of all Icelandic healthcare institutions. The ISO certification was renewed in 2021, but the next renewal is scheduled for 2024.

Hannes Bjarnason, SAk's quality manager, says that SAk made a great journey in the field of quality issues in the spring months of 2013. "The result was not only that SAk received certification for all its activities according to DNV GL Healthcare 2015 and ISO 9001 standard 2019, because in the same year SAk's IT department received (UTD) ISO 27001 certification which was renewed last year and equal pay certification for the hospital was confirmed in early 2020 and renewed last year.”

He says that each certification is significant in itself and the result of hard work by all employees. "But the certification is not the end point. In order to maintain it, extremely strict discipline and procedures must be followed in all areas of the business every single day."

An opportunity to do better

The quality audit now focused on three aspects: firstly, on clinical aspects, secondly, SAk's management system and information management, and finally on the housing itself. No serious comments were made, but 7 minor comments were made, and Hannes says that it turned out to be easy to correct them.

"The managers of the hospital have never seen the quality and control process as a burden, on the contrary. We consider all comments as an opportunity for improvement to become better. The regulators agree. They say that it's good to come here, that we take suggestions well and always respond well."

Increases the safety of clients and staff

Certification standards are actually excellent management tools, according to Hannes. "In a large workplace like the Hospital in Akureyri, there are a lot of procedures and rules that must be strictly followed, whether the workplace is quality certified or not. The certification standards help us to make our work as targeted as possible. We have over 3,600 published quality documents and a precise definition of what we are and what we do in various situations. This ensures that the procedure is always targeted and professional, it increases the safety of clients and staff and improves the service."

The quality guards are doing a great job

Hannes says that in addition to the control that DNV-GL's regular audits provide, internal audits are regularly carried out on individual departments and operational aspects by the hospital itself. "If there are minor deviations, the team in question is pulled, but if there are larger deviations, it comes into the middle of the table as the quality manager."

He says that 1-2 quality guards work in each department of the hospital. “They are responsible for the procedures, procedures and documentation of it. They are the foot soldiers in our quality vanguard and they do a great job. It's simply not possible to praise them enough," says Hannes Bjarnason, SAk's quality manager, in conclusion.