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NABH Accreditation Standards for Hospital, Health Care Centres and Clinics

NABH Accreditation for Hospitals

National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) is a constituent board of Quality Council of India (QCI), set up to establish and operate accreditation programme for healthcare organizations. NABH has been established with the objective of enhancing health system & promoting continuous quality improvement and patient safety. The board while being supported by all stakeholders, including industry, consumers, government, has full functional autonomy in its operation. NABH provides accreditation to hospitals in a non-discriminatory manner regardless of their ownership, legal status, size and degree of independence.

International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) has accredited “Standards for Hospitals”, 5th Edition, April 2020, developed by National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH, India). The hospitals accredited by NABH have international recognition.

NABH Accreditation for Small Health Care Organisations (SHCO)

Those healthcare organizations having bed strength upto 50 beds and are in possession of supportive and utility facilities that are appropriate and relevant to the services being provided by organization.

NABH's hospital accreditation programme is already in operation since February 2006 and is very well received by the industry. The hospitals accredited by NABH will have global recognition, which in turn will provide boost to the medical tourism in our country. Considering that almost 90% of hospitals are with beds less than 100, there was a demand to have specific guidelines on how to apply hospital accreditation standards for small healthcare organisations or carve out separate standard. Present standard for Small Health Care organisations (SHCO) is compilation of all applicable standards from hospital accreditation programme, which are relevant for small healthcare organisations. This will facilitate small healthcare organisations in easy understanding and implementation within their facilities. The standard also applies to single specialty hospitals. Besides patients, which are going to be biggest beneficiaries from accreditation, it is expected to provide easy and transparent mechanism for empanelment of small healthcare organisation(s) by Government, Corporate and the Insurance companies.

NABH Accreditation for Blood Bank/ Blood Centers

NABH standards for blood banks have been drafted by Technical committee of NABH and contain complete set of standards for evaluation of blood banks for grant of accreditation. The standards provide framework for quality assurance and quality improvement for blood banks. The standards focus on patient safety and quality of care. The standards call for continuous monitoring and comprehensive corrective action plan leading to building of quality culture at all levels and across all the functions. The standards are equally applicable to blood banks in the government as well as in the private sector.

Accreditation to a blood bank/ blood centre stimulates continuous improvement. It enables blood bank/ blood centre in demonstrating commitment to quality. It raises community confidence in the services provided by the blood bank/ blood centre. It also provides opportunity to blood bank/ blood centre to benchmark with the best.

NABH Accreditation for Medical Imaging Services

Clinical advantages of medical imaging services are enormous and affect critical decision making at every stage of patient management. However they could represent unnecessary cost to health care systems in the country and could be hazardous if the quality provided is less than optimal. Hence to assess the quality and safety of medical imaging services and to represent a method for monitoring of quality standards, basic accreditation program needs to be implemented in the country for Medical Imaging Services.

A medical imaging centre must maintain certain standard of services (statutory or otherwise); as well as, strive for continuous improvement in the quality of services they provide. Standards for NABH Accreditation for Medical Imaging Services are thus developed and formulated; they are divided into 6 chapters containing 23 standards and 95 objective elements. These standards provide general guidelines pertaining to all diagnostic imaging services. Specific guidelines for X-ray, Fluoroscopy, USG, CT scan, MR and Nuclear Imaging etc. are then provided separately in the guide book for completeness of the document

NABH Accreditation for Dental Health Care Service Providers (DHSP)

Accreditation would be the single most important approach for improving the quality of Dental Facility. Accreditation is an incentive to improve capacity of national Dental Facility to provide quality of care. Accreditation system ensures that Dental Facility, whether public or private, national or expatriate, play there expected roles in national health system. NABH provides accreditation to Dental Facility in a non-discriminatory manner regardless of their ownership, legal status, size and degree of independence. The applicant Dental Facility must have conducted self-assessment against NABH standards after implementing for at least 3 months before submission of application and must ensure that it complies with NABH Standards.

Confidence in accreditation is obtained by a transparent system of control over the accredited Dental Facility and an assurance given by the accreditation body that the accredited Dental Facility constantly fulfills the accreditation criteria.

NABH Accreditation for Eye care organisation ECO

Accreditation would be the single most important approach for improving the quality of Dental Facility. Accreditation is an incentive to improve capacity of national Dental Facility to provide quality of care. Accreditation system ensures that Dental Facility, whether public or private, national or expatriate, play there expected roles in national health system. NABH provides accreditation to Dental Facility in a non-discriminatory manner regardless of their ownership, legal status, size and degree of independence. The applicant Dental Facility must have conducted self-assessment against NABH standards after implementing for at least 3 months before submission of application and must ensure that it complies with NABH Standards.

Confidence in accreditation is obtained by a transparent system of control over the accredited Dental Facility and an assurance given by the accreditation body that the accredited Dental Facility constantly fulfills the accreditation criteria.

Panchkarma Clinic

PANCHAKARMA CLINICS accreditation standard are develop to improve health care quality and patient safety. Accreditation provides a consistent and organized plan to improve the quality of care in the clinic. These standards are dynamic documents and are revised periodically by the experts in the field.

Ayurveda the science of life has some particular aims or objectives which are of great importance in the present scenario. Panchakarma therefore is gaining more and more importance but this Panchakarma treatment can be even life threatening and fatal if it is not done by a qualified person and in a proper way and using proper precautions.

Accreditation standard Evidence

The Panchakarma Clinic going for the Accreditation standard must have the:

  • Approved documents that identify relevant service policy, protocols and/or strategies and set out how the clinic plans to deliver each standard and objective element therein.
  • Evidence that demonstrate that the Panchakarma Clinic is implementing these policies, protocols and/or strategies.
  • Evidence that demonstrates that the Panchakarma Clinic is monitoring and evaluating its performance regularly in the implementation of its policies, protocols and strategies.

Entry level standard for AYUSH Centre and AYUSH Hospital

AYUSH: Ayurvedic, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy. AYUSH stands for Ayurvedic, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy.

NABH has developed entry level standards for AYUSH cetnre and AYUSH hospital to cover the UAH hospital into the hospital certification system.

Accreditation Program for AYUSH (Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Unani, Siddha and Yoga & Naturopathy) Hospitals, is running in association with Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. It consists of Accreditation Standards . Accreditation standards are based on three components- structure, process and outcome.

In India, Heath System currently operates within an environment of rapid social, economical and technical changes. Such changes raise the concern for the quality of health care. Ayurveda Hospitals are an integral part of health care system. Accreditation would be the single most important approach for improving the quality of hospitals. Accreditation is an incentive to improve capacity of national Ayurveda hospitals to provide quality of care. system for Ayurveda hospitals ensure that hospitals, whether public or private, national or expatriate, play there expected roles in national health system.