Small and medium hospitals (Small Health Care Organisations or SHCOs) in the State are going in for a major quality improvement and accreditation programme to increase their viability under a joint initiative launched by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH).
The project, which aims at helping at least 1,100 SHCOs (defined by NABH as hospitals with less than 50 beds) achieve the entry-level quality standards of NABH on a cluster basis, is expected to improve the quality of health care, bring in standardisation, and cut down on health-care costs.
A first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, the project is being implemented by IMA’s Hospital Board of India. The focus is on improved patient safety, quality of care, and better infection control practices.
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“The cost of health care, especially inpatient-care costs, in Kerala has been spiralling after big and corporate hospitals entered the scene. For a long time, it had been the small-and middle-level private hospitals that helped hold this price line in the State. But between1996 and 2016, about 800 of these hospitals, mostly owned by doctors, shut down in Kerala,” says R.V. Asokan, chairman, IMA-HBI.
The IMA has been at the forefront of the opposition in bringing in the Clinical Establishment Bill. Its argument has been that the SHCOs were already over burdened with many regulatory clauses and that further restrictions would effectively close down all SHCOs.
“The NABH has now developed pre-accreditation entry-level standards, in consultation with various stakeholders in the country, including the IMA, as a stepping-stone for enhancing the quality of patient care and safety,” Dr. Asokan says.
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As many as 44 SHCOs in the State have enrolled for the programme.“This accreditation will help the hospitals meet the provisions of the Clinical Establishment Act,” says Renjit Menon, technical consultant working with the project.