Among the 80,000 hospitals across the country, only 545 of them have accreditation. One of the challenges is therefore to bridge the knowledge gap between quality and compliance functions of hospitals. Achieving the goal of better healthcare outcomes will require focus on quality management and standardization process.

These were some of the thoughts shared at a symposium on "Sustaining Quality in Healthcare" hosted by New Age Wockhardt Hospital recently in Mumbai. The event which saw many medical experts, CEO'S, healthcare administrators from multispecialty hospitals come together at a common forum also witnessed the launch of ‘Mumbai Healthcare Forum’, an initiative to promote quality in healthcare organizations.   

Besides the presentations by keynote speakers like Dr KK Kalra, CEO, National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH) and Dr Girdhar Gyani, Director General,  Association of Healthcare Provider of India (AHPI), a panel discussion was also organised, featuring international experts from ‘Partners Medical International' sharing their views on sustainability based health care delivery, operations, quality management, engagement and alignment, bringing in the transparency and standardization in hospital management.

The symposium also witnessed participation from representatives of multispecialty hospitals like Jaslok, Breach Candy, Fortis Hospital Mulund, Nanavati Hospital and many more private and government Hospitals sharing their views on the challenges faced by Hospital administration on quality and compliance issues.

While addressing the event, Dr KK Kalra, CEO, NABH, emphasized on quality improvement as an important component for hospitals and healthcare systems. He informed that hospitals should strive to work together to create awareness among their respective stake holders, identify problems and challenges and strive to achieve developmental change.

Supportive to Dr Kalra’s thoughts, Dr Girdhar Gyani, Director General, AHPI stressed upon the apathy of Indian healthcare sector. He said, “Lack of support from the government has resulted in Indian hospitals failing to follow the quality norms. Engagement of leaders is the key to enhance the quality management services. It is essential to adopt quality management tools, healthcare organizations can build-up the capacity through training and consulting organizations. It is also important to promote recognition system for healthcare quality providers.”

Meanwhile, international healthcare experts from Partners Medical International delved into topics on patient safety and raising hospital performance measures in recent years, growing out of the movement for improved quality and patient satisfaction, greater accountability and transparency.

“Quality care is less expensive care. It is better, more efficient, and less wasteful. It is the right care, at the right time, every time. It should mean that far fewer patients are patients are harmed or injured. It is important that healthcare leaders and professionals should focus on quality and patient safety in ways they never used before because the economics of quality have changed substantially,” said Dr John Helfrick, from Partners Medical International.

Other speakers included Dr Patricia Folcarelli, Senior Director of Patient Safety at Beth Israel Deaconess medical Centre, who spoke about the changing paradigms in patient safety and Suresh Lulla, founder & MD of Qimpro Consultant emphasized on the role of continual quality improvement in healthcare.

The session ended with New Age Wockhardt Hospital announcing an array of activities to be undertaken by the ‘Mumbai Healthcare Quality Forum’ in the coming months. “The healthcare forum is an attempt to engage healthcare professionals in quality healthcare, innovative healthcare practices and a robust hospital-to-hospital learning network,” informed Dr Parag Rindani, AVP and Head of New Age Wockhardt Hospitals, South Mumbai.

“The forum will act as a foundation for numerous quality efforts already underway, across the country by building a powerful network to expand the transformation of health care practices for hospitals,” he added.