The Health Department has begun implementing the National Quality Assurance Standards for public health facilities, the new national-level certification programme for government hospitals rolled out last year by the Union Ministry of Health.
Selected hospitals across the State have already initiated the process for securing the certification.
First institution
The Pandappilly Community Health Centre in Ernakulam is the first institution in the State to have completed the process and apply for the new certification.
The new certification has been built on the premise that quality can be a sustained activity only if there is an in-built system within institutions for quality control, with clearly defined standards and measurable processes.
Specific standards have been drawn up for three levels of public health facilities — primary and community health centres and district hospitals.
Vast areas
“The new national certification for public hospitals covers vast areas such as hospital processes, patient rights, and, most importantly, social and support services to patients coming to public health facilities.
The focus is on hospital processes and client perception, rather than just infrastructure and there are incentives to staff who strive to maintain quality and goodwill of patients,” said Nikhil Prakash, Consultant, National Health System Resource Centre, the nodal agency for implementing the new standards.
The standards specify standards, measurable elements, and checklists across eight broad areas, including service provision, patient rights, infrastructure inputs (HR elements, training, and competency of staff), hospital support services, clinical services, infection control, quality management systems, and outcome indicators.
Each hospital will have to go through an internal assessment as well as assessment at district and State level before applying for national certification.
Two programmes
Kerala has currently two quality control and accreditation programmes for government hospitals, the NABH accreditation by the Quality Council of India, an external agency, and the State-level Kerala Accreditation Standards for Hospitals (KASH). Four hospitals have already secured NABH accreditation while 17 have been accredited under KASH.
“We do not intend to replace one programme with another.
“The NABH accreditation is a long-drawn process of several inspections over 3 to 5 years, while the new standards, though it covers a vast area, can be implemented within a year’s time.
KASH specifies very basic standards and hence all KASH-accredited hospitals can now work towards getting certification,” an official pointed out.
