BOOK REVIEW
2005; Informa; Volume: 84; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/j.0001-6349.2005.00711.x
ISSN1600-0412
Autores ResumoCarson BE, Alper MED, Keck C, editors. Quality Management Systems for Assisted Reproductive Technology – ISO 9001:2000. 180 pages. London: Taylor & Francis, 2004. ISBN 1-84184-419-5. Paperback. GBP 39.95 This book is all about management, or how to improve your services. Editors Michael Alper and Christoph Keck are medical doctors, both assistant professors of obstetrics and gynecology, one in USA and the other in Germany, while editor Bryce E. Carson is the Vice President of Quality Paradigms Training and Consulting INC in New Jersey, USA. The management quality system, which is the core of the book, is called ISO 9001:2000, which according to the foreword helps you to control the way you and your team perform your duties within the practice. The broad outline is described in the first 90 pages, while the next section compares the ISO 9001:2000 to the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (MBNQA) system, both of which were completely novel to this reviewer. Browsing through this first part of the book, which covers about two-thirds of the text, I kept looking for references to assisted reproductive technologies and how to run the services, but all I found was a few cryptic sentences exemplified in: “The IVF practice's design procedure should include details of the verification methodology to be adopted, including who is to carry out design verification and how it is to be performed and documented” (p. 69). This is management jargon to the highest degree, assumably intelligible to the initiated. It struck me that if IVF were replaced by ‘cosmetic surgery’ or any non-medical business label, the only other change required would be in the book title. The last part (Appendix 3) is more specific, namely “ISO 9001:2000 Quality Systems Manual” of Boston IVF, which is an outpatient fertility and in vitro fertilization center devoted to the design and delivery of care for infertile couples and individuals. This is a good outline of the quality management protocol, worthy of being studied by those who run similar centers and want to improve their services. The text is interspersed with numerous lists of points to remember in management endeavors, but it is all theoretical. I miss examples to enliven the reader. The pages on internal audit are dry as dust; some paragraphs based on real-life experience would have been refreshing. My task in reviewing is to advise obstetricians and gynecologists about the merits of the book, and to name those who may benefit from buying and reading it. The back cover states that it “will be a very welcome boon to staff at many [IVF] centers”. I would add that its message is applicable to any service delivery system, whether in health or other branches. The target group is the managers, rather than the practicing physicians and technical staff members, to the extent that there is a division between administration and process execution.
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