Guaranteeing a superb medical service with the ISO 9001:2015 accreditation
Let’s face it, choosing the right repatriation service can be a daunting experience. There are quite a few options out there… but it’s not always easy to know what you might get after you’ve signed up. What kind of service is that company offering, and how do they guarantee they can deliver it? What checks and balances are in place to make sure they do a first-class job? That’s what the ISO 9001 accreditation is all about. It’s an internationally-recognised standard that makes sure companies mean what they say when it comes to quality of service.
ISO-what?
ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. The ISO is a non-governmental institution that was created in Switzerland in the 1940s to provide a universally accepted system of standards around the world. These standards are now widely recognised across the globe.
The ISO 9000 series is all about quality management. It’s a set of standards that helps organisations document how they provide a high-quality service to their customers, and how they can guarantee it – and improve on it. ISO 9001:2015 is one of the newest documents in the series, and we're pleased to announce that we have just received our certification for it.
HOW EMS GUARANTEES QUALITY-OF-SERVICE ON EVERY REPATRIATION
ISO 9001:2015 is focused around a specially-designed model called ‘Plan-Do-Check-Act’, which is a simple process for testing, analysing and improving any service a company provides. At EMS, we’ve always believed that checking and double-checking is absolutely essential for medical transports, because they’re often complex and have to happen at speed – yet the patient’s safety must always be at the very core of the operation.
Here are just some of the ways we do that with our repatriation service:
Being safe, secure and ready for the next mission: Before anything else, we have a process for testing and analysing our systems to make sure everything is ready for the next transport. This includes things such as: deep-cleaning and disinfecting our vehicles in the warehouse; making sure the vehicles or planes are fully stocked with the correct equipment; reviewing the list of medications and expiry dates; checking the registrations of any medical personnel from outside EMS Air Ambulance & Medical Repatriation; and so on.
Handling our first contact with you: From the moment anyone calls or contacts our dedicated service team, we have a carefully designed plan in place for what happens next. This includes the questions we ask you right at the start, and all the details we take down to get ourselves up-to-speed quickly on your case – things like the location of the patient, their current medical condition, and the right transportation for the journey. All these details are then reviewed in discussion with our experienced medical team, to make sure we can deliver exactly the kind of repatriation that the patient needs.
Caring for our patient in the air or on the road: When our team arrives to collect you or your loved one, they’ll run through the details again to make sure we’ve recorded everything correctly, and to see if anything has changed since our last contact. We’ll check the letter or report from your doctor, for instance, and any medication you might need for the journey ahead. Are there any special requirements? If so, the team will run through them with you before we start the transport.
Following-up with you after the transportation: Our repatriation service doesn’t end as soon as we reach your destination. There’s a rigorous system for handing over to the new clinical team – for example, calling them ahead of time so they know when to expect us and are ready for your arrival; making sure their team members have a full report of the journey that has just taken place and the patient’s status and condition; following up with you again in a day or two to see how everything’s going. We’re always very keen to have your feedback too: what worked well, and what improvements might have made the journey even better or more comfortable for you or your loved one? These kinds of details are extremely important, because we can use them to analyse and keep improving the EMS service. That’s really what underlies ISO 9001:2015. Plan, Do, Check, Act: when it comes to medical repatriation, you should never leave anything to chance.
Contact us
Are you slightly bewildered by the different options for medical repatriation? We’ll be very happy to talk to you and explain how EMS Air Ambulance & Medical Repatriation can help you or your loved one. You can call us direct, send an email, or message us on our WhatsApp.