The District General Hospital in the city is seeking quality certification for the third consecutive period by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH) for patient care services and infrastructure.
With the pre-certification inspections over, the hospital authorities are working towards complying with the 50-odd parameters that were found to be not on par with the prescribed standards.
The hospital authorities are confident of complying with all the parameters within the stipulated 45 days.
If the 783-bed hospital gets the certification for the third time in a row, the institution will be considered to be of international standards. It is also among the largest public health institutions in the country that had consistently maintained the stringent quality parameters prescribed by the NABH.
The hospital’s Resident Medical Officer P. J. Cyriac said that this time the number of non-compliant parameters had come down by 50% from the last time when the assessors had pointed out over 100 specifications that were not in sync with the required norms. The last reassessment was in 2014. The hospital was first awarded the NABH quality certification in 2011.
The short-comings in the operation theatres were pointed out by the assessors from the NABH as a major instance of non-compliance. The norms stipulate that all operation theatres should function with a centralised air-conditioning unit. It was pointed out that three theatres had only split AC units.
The assessors also found fault with the fact that the patients were not getting a unique outpatient identity cards that could be produced during revisits. These facilities are expected to be rolled out in the Ardram programme of the State government, hospital authorities said.
The assessors also pointed out that the intensive care units and the medical records department should have a shower and fire-detectors.
The hospital was appreciated for the excellence in services such as catheterisation laboratory (Cathlab) and dialysis and dietary kitchen. The fire drill was much appreciated by the assessors and they also found 100% patient satisfaction, according to hospital authorities.
