CREDIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ARE WHAT MAKES NABH THE MOST TRUSTWORTHY CERTIFICATION IN THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR
Like all organisations and institutions, hos pitals too require ac creditation to function well with minimum risks. NABH, the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers, established in the year 2006, is considered to be the highest accreditation for hospitals in India.The body puts in place stringent protocols for all departments to ensure the smooth functioning of a hospital.
“Accredited hospitals offer higher quality of care to their patients. It helps reduce the risks, focuses on organising, strengthens patient care and creates a culture of safety for both, the staff as well the patients.NABH accreditation makes sure that the hospital adopts the best practices. It has also improved the overall professional development of clinicians, para medical staff and promotes leadership and quality improvement,“ says Philip Mathew, deputy manager for corporate relations at a leading cardiac specialty hospital in the city. Also, a programme for internal champions on implementing the quality manage ment system, has been put in place. It essentially creates a structure for the work.Quality being a continuous process, stimulates continuous improvement by means of doing audits at predefined intervals to make sure whether the established systems and processes are sustained to meet the standards requirements. Any changes in the system or process are monitored frequently. Internal champions are used as mentors for quality improvement and implementing the changes in their work areas concerned,“ he adds.
The NABH 4th edition standards are documented in 10 chapters, which are Access, Assessment and Continuity of Care, Care of Patients (COP), Management of Medication (MOM), Pa tient Rights and Education (PRE), Hospital Infection Control (HIC), Continual Quality Improvement (CQI), Responsibilities of Management (ROM), Facility Management and Safety (FMS), Human Resource Management (HRM) and Information Management System(IMS).The NABH essentially aims at streamlining all the processes of the hospitals and that is reflected by healthcare professionals across the city. “NABH accreditation promotes higher quality healthcare to the patients, maintains rights and responsibilities of the staff and ensures that quality is maintained by health care providers,“ says Dr V Balaji, director of a leading diabetes care centre in the city.
However, it is not easy to get accredited by NABH.With strict rules and regulations in place, it takes a lot for hospitals to even be eligible for consideration for this accreditation. “We have to go through stringent protocols, follow guidelines for all activities of the hospital, strict maintenance of records, streamlined practices, proper paper work for equipment used, infection control, biomedical waste management, keeping records of patients as well as attenders, disinfection in handling patients, documentation of all procedures, drug charts etc,“ says Dr Geetha Haripriya, director of a fertility care centre in the city.“For surgeries there are processes in place to counsel the patients regarding the risks and benefits of the procedure, lab management, radiology procedures etc. Following these protocols gives good output and minimises risks in patient management. It helps the patient by reducing waiting time, the doctors by providing immediate patient history and basically improves the overall functioning of the hospital,“ she adds.
This accreditation is given to hospitals, blood banks, eye care centres, dental care centres, blood storage centres, allopathic clinics, AYUSH (Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Unani, Siddha and Yoga and Naturopathy) hospitals, wellness centres, clinical trial centres and panchakarma centres to name a few. According to the CEO of NABH Dr Harish Nadkarni, the body intends to be a robust, accessible and competent organisation that complements the healthcare system to improve its efficiency and the predictability of healthcare outcomes.
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