WHAT IS NABH?

National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Health Care Providers (NABH) is a constituent Board of QCI, set up with co-operation of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India and the Indian Health Industry. In India concerns about how to improve health care quality have been frequently raised by the general public and a wide variety of stakeholders, including government, professional associations, private providers and agencies financing health care.

This Board will cater to the much desired needs of the consumers and will set standards for progress of the health industry. This Board while being supported by the stakeholders including industry, consumers, Government, will have full functional autonomy in its operations.

WHY NABH?

• The main purpose of NABH accreditation is to help planners to promote, implement, monitor and evaluate robust practice in order to ensure that occupies a central place in the development of the health care system.
• Current policies and processes for health care are inadequate or not responsive to ensure health care services of acceptable quality and prevent negligence. Problems range from inadequate and inappropriate treatments, excessive use of higher technologies, and wasting of scarce resources, to serious problems of medical malpractice and negligence
• Quality Assurance should help improves effectiveness, efficiency and in cost containment, and should address accountability and the need to reduce errors and increase safety in the system.
• Thus the objective of NABH accreditation is on continuous improvement in the organizational and clinical performance of health services, not just the achievement of a certificate or award or merely assuring compliance with minimum acceptable standards.

REQUIREMENTS:

NABH Standards for Hospitals have been drafted by Technical Committee of the NABH and contains complete set of standards for evaluation of hospitals for grant of accreditation. The standards provide framework for quality assurance and quality improvement for hospitals. The standards focus on patient safety and quality of patient care. The standards are equally applicable to hospitals & nursing homes in the Government as well as in the private sector.

Patients are increasingly and appropriately aware of healthcare issues, and desire participation in decisions affecting their health. The ultimate responsibility of a health care system is to the patient. Adherence to high standards, such as those related to timeliness of treatment, diagnostic accuracy, clinical relevance of the tests performed and interventions, qualifications and training of personnel, and prevention of errors, is an ethical responsibility of all hospital staff.

Accreditation standard requirements ensure that the owners, managers and staff comply with appropriate technical and professional standards regardless of cost pressures and avoidance of personal, financial and organizational conflicts of interest

To develop a general conceptual foundation and framework for a process of quality assurance for guaranteeing commonality of approach to institutions, delineating the domains of quality to be measured and the development of a credible, effective and transparent system of accreditation, meaningful participation of the stakeholders is essential and pre-requisite

Standards and Objective Elements for evaluation have been set in the following 10 areas, specifying the clear intent of the standards:-

Patient Centered Standard

- Access, Assessment and Continuity of Care (ACC)
- Care of Patient (COP)
- Management of Medication (MOM)
- Patient rights and Education (PRE)
- Hospital Infection Control (HIC)
Organization Centered Standards
- Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)
- Responsibilities of Management (ROM)
- Facility Management and Safety (FMS)
- Human Resource Management (HRM)
- Information Management System (IMS)