HCF Dental Centres gain international quality certification
Sydney, 11 October, 2013 - The quality of dental care available to members of HCF, Australia’s largest not-for-profit private health insurer, has been recognised with the announcement today it had achieved international certification for its quality management systems. The International Standards Organisation (ISO) 9001 certification recognises the effectiveness of HCF’s Dental Centres in consistently delivering high treatment standards.
HCF Dental Centres is the first dental network in Australia to achieve ISO 9001 certification, placing HCF at the forefront of quality management in dental care.
HCF's Managing Director, Shaun Larkin said, “This certification supports our objective of providing high quality, affordable dental care to our members by ensuring our infrastructure, staff training, selection and storage of equipment and materials perform to specified international standards”
ISO 9001 provides a framework to ensure HCF Dental Centres comply with and improve upon their clinical standards by constantly looking to upgrade the skills of their dentists and improve the environment in which they work. For example, HCF is modernising all sterilising procedures and equipment to provide members with the highest standards of instrument sterilising, whilst also meeting future Australian standards. These improvements ensure a safe and auditable system, increasing the safety and quality of dental care provided to HCF members.
Following the awarding of the well-respected international standard, ISO-trained auditors will undertake regular audits across the HCF's Dental Centre network to ensure continued compliance with the standard.
The ISO 9001 certification is the latest recognition for HCF, which in July, 2012 became the first Australian health fund to achieve accreditation to the ICSS, an internationally accredited assessment and certification program. The ICSS recognises customer service excellence and benchmarks performance standards to international best practice. The Dental Centres are also the first Health Fund operated dental facility in NSW to comply with the hand hygiene standard.
Currently hand hygiene Australia does not have a separate compliance system for dental facilities and therefore HCF Dental comes under “Large Private Day Hospitals”.
