Application of TS-EN-ISO 9001 in service sector. A comparative study at hospitals and higher education institutions

SUMMARY The service sector which support the manufacturing sector is an indispensible factor of development. Currently, the services sector have initiated a change and as a result of this change, services producing organizations as well as goods producing organizations are in need of international quality standards and international quality assurance systems in order to compete globally. At the beginning of this study, production systems; the main characteristics of service systems are analyzed and the importance given to services in developed countries are discussed. The main purpose of the study is to compare the applications of TS-EN-ISO 9001 quality assurance systems in health care and in education systems. After this comparison, the main factors that differentiate these applications are discussed along with the results gained from these applications. In order to attain this main objective, the functions, objectives and types of the production systems are analyzed; the differences between goods and services producing sytems are examined. Lastly the importance and the advantages of ISO 9000 quality assurance systems are mentioned. In the following chapters, the concepts of quality, quality assurance and the consumer are defined first; then the factors that affect quality, steps of the quality assurance application process in services, the certification process and the quality assurance requirements of an effective quality assurance system are analysed. The results obtained by the comparison of quality assurance systems of health care and high education systems are discussed and evaluated at the conclusion of this study. İÖCREÎİM KURUM-