National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH)
The National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) Standards is today the highest benchmark standard for hospital quality in India. For Allopathic Hospitals there are mainly two versions of the Standards, one being the Full NABH suitable for large Speciality and Tertiary Care Level Hospitals and Entry Level NABH meant mainly for Smaller Hospitals who do not have the Infrastructure and Resources to comply with the Full NABH.
Though developed by the Quality Council of India initially on the
lines of International Accreditation Standards like the JCI, ACHS
and the Canadian Hospital Accreditation Standards, the Full NABH
has now evolved over 5 major revisions and is now seen as an
advanced and very practical set of Standards, topical and relevant
to India's unique healthcare system requirements. It is also
accepted by ISQUa, the International Society for Quality Assurance
in Healthcare, as an International Accreditation on par with the
world's best. The Entry Level NABH came up nearly 8 years later to
meet the needs of smaller Hospitals who were finding it difficult
to comply with the more stringent requirements of the Full NABH.
Both the Full NABH and the Entry Level Quality Standards are
effectively Management Systems for all types and sizes of
Hospitals that enable them to deliver High Quality Services. The
Standards thus cover the entire range of operations and services
provided by the Hospital, right from registration of patients and
their initial assessment to laboratory services that will be
offered in-house as well as those that will be outsourced, display
of patient rights & education, policies & procedures on care of
patients, management of medication, hospital infection control
process that has been deployed, facility management & safety,
Human resources management and patient information management
systems.
Patients are the biggest beneficiaries from both the Full NABH
Accreditation and the Entry Level Certification, as it results in
a high quality of care and patient safety. The patients get
services by credential medical staff. Rights of patients are
respected and protected. Patient satisfaction is regularly
evaluated. Quality Accreditations and Certifications also benefit
the staff of the hospital as it provides for continuous learning,
good working environment, leadership and above all ownership of
clinical processes.
Both the Full NABH Accreditation and Entry Level NABH application
in Hospitals stimulate continuous improvement, enabling the
Hospitals in demonstrating commitment to quality care and raises
the community confidence in the services provided by the
Hospitals. They provide an opportunity to benchmark with the best.
Major hospital performance related benefits from Implementing either the Full NABH or the Entry Level NABH
- Reduction in Hospital Infections, Medical Errors and Accidents, resulting in reducing unnecesary stay at the hospital
- Reduction in Costs through improving Operational Efficiency
- Improvement in Equipment Utilisation, through reducing breakdowns and down time
- Better Staff Utilisation through training & clearer assignment of roles and responsibilities with credentialing and privileging
- Optimising usage of Materials with better Inventory Management, avoiding of Stock-outs The Full NABH and the Entry Level NABH also serve as an objective system of empanelment by Insurance and other Third Parties Administrators. Accreditation providing access to reliable and certified information on facilities, infrastructure and level of care, a need being felt increasingly by the Indian Insurance Companies who have recently come out with a three tier package segmenting hospitals into A,B& C categories based on which tariffs for cashless hospitalization treatments will be set. The Full NABH Accreditation will naturally help Hospital to be in the A Category.
