LAHORE, July 11: Four departments of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology have got ISO 9001:2000 certification from French Association of Quality Assurance. The departments are; pharmacy, pathology, radiology and quality management unit. This was announced by PIC medical superintendent Dr Muhammad Javaid at a news conference here on Monday.

He said the PIC had become the first public sector hospital that earned ISO certification.

The 292-bed PIC would start working on the second phase on securing ISO certification for its emergency, administration, nursing, biomedical engineering, blood bank, ICU/CCU from next month. In the third phase, he said the PIC would strive to get ISO certification for its echocardiography, thallium, ETT, OPD, OT and angiography.

Dr Javaid said the ISO certification would make the institution to document data, implement required policies, preserve data and continually improve effectiveness.

He said the certification had helped the institution improve patient care services, their satisfaction as well as saving cost and time. He claimed that the PIC was offering free treatment to almost 70 per cent patients.

Earlier, Engineer Chaudhry Humayun Sarwar gave a presentation on PIC ISO 9001:2000 Certification achievement.

He said the certification would compel the PIC to adopt the process of ongoing review of the quality of patient care, formulate a system for the continuous collection and analysis of data.

It would help the institution in monitoring, assessing, comparing and ultimately improve standards of professional cardiac care. It would lead the institution to ensure high standards of clinical care and patient safety.

Engineer Sarwar said the PIC would conduct patient satisfactory survey periodically or on receiving consecutive complaints and report the feedback to the top management.

Prof Nadeem Hayat Malik also spoke on the occasion.