After signing an MoU to promote best practices and standards in hospitals to prevent healthcare associated infections and also to promote quality care for patients in India, 3M and NABH were recently awarded for their project “Up-gradation of standards and practices in healthcare in India”, a joint initiative at eINDIA awards.

The awards were presented by Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Minister of IT, Govt. of Andhra Pradhesh, P K Mohanty, chief secretary – Govt. of Andhra Pradhesh and Sanjay Jaju, secretary - IT, Govt. of AP..

The project involved designing of several educational modules to upgrade health care services. These modules were then demonstrated hands-on through several extensive day long workshops designed on topics such as surgical site infection prevention, sterilization assurance, IV Therapy - catheter related blood stream infection prevention, wound management & casting workshops across India to healthcare providers.

Over the last one and a half years, 14 such workshops have been organised all over India with participation from more than 450 heatlhcare providers across  150 hospitals. Over 50 industry experts along with 3M personnel have facilitated these workshops through a healthy mix of lectures, case studies, hands-on demo and panel discussions. 3M has also developed toolkits for many hospitals to ensure effective implementation by healthcare providers after attending these workshops. The participants of these workshops have now become the ambassadors of best healthcare practices in their respective institutions while 3M & NABH are continuously working to take this project forward to many more hospitals and cities with more relevant infection prevention topics.

On receipt of the award, Gautam Khanna, executive director, 3M Health Care Business – India, said, “We are honoured to receive this prestigious award. Our collaboration with NABH is a successful example of how the government objective of high quality standards of healthcare can be achieved by leveraging private expertise. Empowering healthcare professionals through upgrading of practices is critical to improve the standard of healthcare in India. Achieving this has come about as a result of the tremendous support and teamwork we have experienced with NABH.”

Dr Kalra, CEO, NABH said, “Quality in Healthcare is being recognised as a key parameter all over the world. It aims directly at saving precious lives. Management of medication and control of infections, have emerged as two principal points, which if attended, can improve patient safety many fold. NABH is pleased that our collaboration with 3M in a mission to provide quality healthcare in our country has got this recognition.”

This recognition also complements 3M's ongoing efforts to help prevent and control infection related to morbidity and mortality, thus raising the standards of quality of healthcare imparted in hospitals and subsequently reduce the cost of care linked to healthcare associated infection. This is 3M's third national award within a year after winning the prestigious Wound Management Company of the Year Award at the Frost & Sullivan Healthcare Excellence Awards, and the QCI – DL Shah National Award for Healthcare Services awarded by the Quality Council of India, for its significant contribution towards infection prevention.