AyurVAID Hospitals, India’s largest chain of inpatient Ayurveda hospitals, received NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers) certification making it the first  Ayurveda hospital in the country to get this distinction. The hospital at Domlur in Bangalore took eight months approximately to achieve the quality standards defined by the NABH.

The NABH, a constituent board of Quality Council of India (QCI), has recently launched the "Accreditation for Ayush Hospitals" in association with the Dept of Ayush, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The NABH accreditation for an Ayurveda hospital is a quality benchmark which ensures critical patient benefits - essentially, safety, efficacy of outcomes, and informed care.

The hospital was evaluated on the basis of NABH standards for Ayurveda hospitals 2009, that is organised into 10 chapters, 94 standards and 489 objective elements. The standards focus on all aspects of service delivery such as patient rights and education, infection control practices, trained and experienced staff, infrastructure and environment safety, and are almost identical in scope with NABH standards applicable for Allopathy hospitals.

Accreditation is demonstration to the patients that healthcare organization conforms to global benchmarks on patient safety and quality of care, stated Dr. Girdhar J Gyani, secretary general, Quality Council of India at a press conclave here.

According to him, there are 2,400 Ayurveda hospitals in India. Currently, another six hospitals of which five in the government space in the Ayurveda sector have applied for NABH accreditation. There are already 500 hospitals in the modern medicine space which have bagged NABH certification. In addition, there are an additional 95 hospitals which have applied for the certification. This shows the awareness among the hospitals to gear up to certify their quality practice adherences, he added.

Although the government has not mandated NABH accreditation, the Central Government Health Services (CGHS) has intimated to the hospitals that their selection into the CGHS umbrella would come in only with a NABD accreditation, said the Quality Council of India chief.

According to Rajiv Vasudevan, managing director, AyurVAID Hospitals, the NABH is the proof about Ayurveda as a medical science capable of meeting the rigour, standardisation, and patient safety expectations of the 21st century.

AyurVAID Hospitals, which focuses mainly on chronic diseases, classical Ayurveda para-surgical (non-invasive) procedures such as Kshara Karma, Kshara Sutra, Agni Karma, Rakta Mokshana are performed under strict protocols. The  hospital has 6 points of presence and 120 beds capacity spread over Cochin, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, and Hubli and offers leading insurance by Third Party Administrators enabling cashless facility for inpatient Ayurveda medical care.