The National Accreditation Board for Hospital & Healthcare Providers (NABH) which was formally established a year ago is looking at the possibility of offering joint accreditations with international accreditations bodies of the US and Australia, to Indian healthcare firms.

As of now, about 10 Indian hospitals have applied for accreditation from NABH, and this number will go up to 30, soon. Though worldwide, hospitals seeking for accreditation are a voluntary initiative, as the expectation from all the stakeholders including insurance companies increases, more or less accreditation becomes necessary.

NABH has organised a series of workshops and training programmes in cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and recently in Kolkata. Similar workshops in other cities will spread the message of quality among health care providers. The misconception that only foreign accreditations have credibility has been removed. NABH is trying to propagate the benefits patients and hospitals will derive by the accreditation process. We are trying to make a strong point that NABH accreditation is doable and affordable, Dr YP Bhatia, chairman, Accreditation Committee, NABH, told Pharmabiz.

Besides training hospitals, NABH has also started training assessors. A panel of assessors is being developed comprising clinicians, hospital administrators and nursing professionals across India. NABH is also laying down the criteria for selection of assessors.

Dr Bhatia added, though NABH is relying on Quality Council of India (QCI) for initial funding to support its activities and initiatives, it hopes to become financially self-reliant by 2008.

NABH is a constituent board of Quality Council of India, set up to establish and operate accreditation programme for healthcare organizations. The board is structured to set benchmarks for progress of health industry. Although accreditation benefits all stakeholders, patients are the major beneficiary. Accreditation results in high quality of care and patient safety. The patients get services by credentialed staff. Accreditation also provides an objective system of empanelment by insurance and other third parties.

NABH standards for hospitals have been drafted by Technical Committee of NABH and contain complete set of standards for evaluation of hospitals for grant of accreditation. NABH will comprise of Appeals Committee, Accreditation Committee, Technical Committee, Secretariat and Panel of Experts and Assessors.

The NABH standards will cover- Access, Assessment and Continuity of Care (AAC), Patient Rights and Education (PRE), Care of Patient (COP), Management of Medication (MOM), Hospital Infection Control (HIC), Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), Responsibility of Management (ROM), Facility Management and Safety (FMS), Human Resource Management (HRM), and Information Management System (IMS).