Certification seen as boon to services

Certification of quality could help improve the performance of the service industry, China’s Certification and Accreditation Administration said on Monday.

“Certification in the service industry falls short of certification in other sectors in China,” said Wang Xiaoxia, an official for accreditation supervision at the Certification and Accreditation Administration.

“We will promote certification in important service sectors that concern people’s daily lives, such as medical care and education, as an important means to improve the quality of the services,” she said.

Cui Lixin, an associate professor of economic management at Beijing Institute of Technology, said that compared with evaluating the quality of tangible products, it is difficult to certify servi- ces, as they have many different forms and assessing them can be highly subjective.

“Globally, certification in the service industry is almost a blank,” she said.

In addition, companies usually have to invest a lot of money so they can pass certification, which makes many of them reluctant to apply, she said.

Liu Ling, vice-president of the China National Technical Committee on Health Care Service, estimated that no more than 60 percent of all healthcare companies meet basic national standards, and less than 3 percent can reach the top Grade 5 certification.

“Many businesses in the sector are running in an unregulated way, lacking qualified talent and some even posing safety risks,” she said. “We hope by promoting certification we can urge healthcare companies to take more measures to improve quality, such as organizing training for their staffs and guiding consumers to certified providers.”

He Qiqin, chief of medical at the Beijing Puerpera and Infant Healthcare Center, which was rated Grade 5 by a certification institute in Beijing in 2015, said the center had to make many preparations to pass inspections and evaluations before it was awarded the certification.

“During the process we learned how to provide better services, and made ensuring mother and infant safety our priority,” she said. “We also improved signs in the center so they are clearer for our customers, and we label our water dispensers indicating that they have been sterilized.”

Tian Qing, CEO of Wuzhisheng, a Grade 5 foot-care company based in Beijing, said the company has changed its management approach so that services continue to improve. For example, it established a credit system to evaluate staff members, so its certificate will not be revoked by the authorities.

Many businesses in the sector are running in an unregulated way, lacking qualified talent and some even posing safety risks.” Liu Ling, vice-president of China National Technical Committee on Health Care Service