The Indian Institute of Health Management and Research, Bangalore (IIHMR) organised an orientation programme to get a National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) accreditation, in order to create a platform for the various healthcare providers to enhance their competency.

The one-day training held at the IIHMR Bangalore campus had two continuing medical education (CME) credits approved by the Karnataka Medical Council.

There were over 41 participants who included doctors and healthcare managers. The workshop topics included Quality Management Systems, Entry Level and Progressive Level NABH Accreditation, Standards, implementation challenges and regulatory requirements.

Experts from the healthcare management industry who included Dr Thuppil Venkatesh, Principal Advisor, QCI and Director-FQI, Dr. Usha Manjunath, Director, IIHMR-B, Dr Pradanya Sriram Internal Auditor, Dr Veena R, Assistant Professor, IIHMR-B trained the participants on the need for hospitals to have the accreditation to ensure a high quality of care and patient safety. Dr. G.V. Diwakar was the ‘Observer’ from KMC.

Speaking about the purpose of the workshop, Dr Manjunath said that NABH Entry Level Standards have been designed so that many hospitals start evidencing their quality levels. Hospitals benefit by insurance empanelment and containing many legal challenges by following proper procedures as per norms. Patient rights and safety is most critical. All hospitals should start self-assessment and improve their services; NABH standards provides specific benchmarks for the same. In a fragmented private health sector, entry level accreditation is an excellent beginning for hospitals”.
 
Commenting on the need for capacity building Dr. Venkatesh, said that the process of granting accreditation to health care organizations is recent effort in India by NABH when accreditation by outside agencies were unaffordable. Affordable third-party certification by NABH for quality health care by competent professions is now gaining popularity in both private and public sector in India and neighbouring countries.