Apollo Hospitals Group is expected to get certification from the Joint Commission International (JCI), an arm of US Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organisations (JCAHO). Apollo is the first hospital group in the country to enroll for this certification.

Apollo is seeking certification for its Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad centres. The Delhi hospital is likely to get the certification within next one year, which will be followed by Chennai and Hyderabad. The certification for all the three centres will be in place in next 24 months from now.

One needs to meet the stringent efficiency tests in term of services, facilities provided and equipments used to get the certification. The Certification enhances community confidence in the hospital's improvement efforts and expedites third-party payment. The Group has already spent about Rs 6 crore on upgradation of facilities as per the JCAHO requirements and may spend another Rs 2 crore on the modernization.

It may be noted that Apollo obtained ISO 9002 certification and had been
implementing various levels of Six Sigma for the last one year. The Six Sigma lays emphasis on processes and process efficiencies and replicable processes in the healthcare organizations, Sangeeta Reddy, director, Apollo Group, said.

Apollo is targeting a Rs 7 crore revenue from foreign patient services this fiscal as against Rs 4.5 crore revenue achieved last fiscal.