Building A New Hospital/Modifying Your Existing one –  Check For NABH Standards For Hospitals

Abstract

Indian Healthcare Industry is witnessing phenomenal growth at a rate of over 28%, becoming the fastest growing sector in the Country, outstripping even IT. The main reason for this growth being better standards of living, leading to more incidences of lifestyle diseases, increasing insurance coverage and a growing popularity of India across the world, as a cost-effective and high-quality healthcare destination.

Interest Category

NABH standards for hospitals, NABH compliant hospitals

Is NABH Standards for hospitals necessary?

National Accreditation Board for Hospital and Healthcare service providers (NABH) standards are primarily designed to provide recognition to hospitals that focus on the overall satisfaction of the patients. With an increase in the awareness of patient rights in terms of health insurance, legal cases, and medical tourism, NABH standards help a patient to choose the health care provider carefully. It also ensures that the hospitals provide the best services to the patients. NABH guidelines were drafted after carefully studying the international standards like JCAHO, JCI, Australian, European, Thai Standards.

The key focus areas of NABH standards for hospitals are:

1. Huge recognition to hospitals with respect to patient care, access, assessment and continuity of care, infection control, quality improvement, responsibilities of the management, facilities and safety and community participation
2. Protecting patient rights
3. Improvement in quality and standard of care
4. Identifying hospitals that can serve international patients and improve medical tourism
5. Upgradation to latest technology advancements in healthcare
6. Increasing patient flow to the hospitals that comply with the guidelines
7. Professional improvement for the staff

Top 4 Benefits of NABH accreditation

1  Quality of healthcare

The patients can be assured of a high quality of healthcare as the accreditation guidelines give emphasis to patient satisfaction. The credentials of the medical staff would also be validated with the help of the NABH accreditation

2. Improves the hospital

NABH accreditation is a continuous process, this helps the hospital management to have a check on all its services and helps to improve the quality continuously.

3. Legal benefits

The accreditation also brings in the empanelment of insurance and third parties. It helps to bring more transparency and access to the medical facilities.

4. Clinical benefits

The staff gets to work in the best environment, which provides a huge opportunity for learning and helps to bring out the leadership skills of the staff.

Who should get NABH accreditation?

This accreditation is available for healthcare facilities that provide allopathic services. It includes clinics, polyclinic or dispensaries. This facility could be state-owned or owned by a registered doctor in the Indian Medical Council. Daycare centers and alternative medical clinics like ayurvedic, homeopathy, etc are excluded from NABH accreditation.

10 Steps to get NABH accreditation:

1. Obtain a copy of NABH standards
2. Self-assessment with respect to compliance as per NABH guidelines
3. Identify pitfalls and prepare an action plan to address the shortcomings
4. Ensure implementation of NABH standards
5. Submit the application for assessment
6. Payment of accreditation fees
7. Receive notification from NABH with regard to the date and time of assessment
8. Assessment
9. Receive recommendations on the assessment by the assessors
10. Maintain quality based on continuous monitoring

NABH Vs ISO

ISO is a generic certification and it is not an accreditation. Whereas NABH is specific to the healthcare industry and involves a huge focus on the staff, equipment, facilities, premises, patient care, etc. ISO certification does not involve clinical audits

Read more – Building a New Hospital/Modifying your Existing One: Ensure it is NABH Compliant by Suresh Shenoy