Private hospitals in Erode district appear inclined to tread along the quality certification journey, within a year of the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) coming out with a new batch of entry-level standards for accreditation of smaller hospitals.
Some of the hospitals are well into the process of compliance. Last week, the NABH granted the certificate of pre-accreditation to Kalyani Kidney Care Centre. Dr. M. Prabhakar, Managing Director of the Hospital, received the certification from a senior official of the Union Health Ministry at New Delhi.
After entry level, the NABH encourages private hospitals to go for progressive and full accreditation. There are eight hospitals in Western region of Tamil Nadu that have secured the entry-level accreditation.
For the smaller hospitals, there are two types of new standards: about 45 Standards and 173 Objective Elements for 50-bedded hospitals and 41 Standards and 149 Objective Elements for less than 50 beds. For full accreditation, the NABH has 102 Standards and 636 Objective Elements.
In the wake of a NABH team assessing the Government Headquarters Hospital, Erode, during March, the Indian Medical Association, Tamil Nadu, has been encouraging its member hospitals to go for the quality rating. For, NABH accreditation is recognised by International Society for Quality in Healthcare [ISQua].
Quality control and standardisation in adherence to a protocol, according to IMA State president C.N. Raja, would bring about uniformity on several counts including patient safety, outcome, staff adequacy, equipment requirement, and automation.
The NABH accreditation is being viewed as qualifying criteria for selection or empanelment by the Ministry of Tourism, Central Government Health Services, and several public and private insurance companies.
