With more than 350000 IS0 9000 certifications worldwide by end 2000, the global quality management systems standard has been applied to virtually every type of business activity, from manufacturing to service, from government organizations to medical practices. It has proved as adaptable and beneficial to highly specialized operations as to mass production lines.The following, which one might describe as a "hair raising" example, came to the notice of The News through an advertisement in the International Herald Tribune, in which the dhi Medical Group claimed to have written "the book for quality control in hair restoration". Its hair transplant clinic in Athens has operated in accordance with ISO 9002 since 1997.According to dhi's International Projects Director, Lorraine Lambert, the clinic has been able to organize surgical procedures and patient follow-up "far better than ever before" thanks to ISO 9002 disciplines. Quality management implementation "has helped us reorganize the mining of our clinic, manage and organize the staff and maintain optimum results for the patients", and the appointment of a Quality Control Manager has led to errors in surgical procedures having been "almost completely eliminated" due to his constant surveillance of staff.
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