All About NABH Accreditation
In the following article we’ll mention an important topic that’s “All About NABH Accreditation” let’s discuss within the article given below:
NABH (i.e., National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers) is nothing but a constituent board of Quality Council of India (QCI) which is actually set up so as to establish as well as operate accreditation program for all the healthcare organizations.
When we talk about Organisations such as the QCI and its National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare providers, they have actually designed an exhaustive healthcare standard for hospitals as well as healthcare providers. Moreover, this standard actually consists of stringent six-hundred plus objective elements for the hospital to truly achieve in order to get the NABH accreditation. These standards are divided between patient centred standards and organization centred standards.
To really comply with these standard elements, the healthcare organisation (HCO) will actually need to have a process-driven approach in all aspects of its activities – from registration, admission, pre-surgery, peri-surgery as well as post-surgery protocols, discharge from the hospital to follow-up with the hospital after discharge. Both the clinical as well as the governance aspects have to be process driven based on clear and transparent policies and protocols. In a nutshell NABH aims at streamlining the entire operations of a HCO.
NABH & Its International Linkage
NABH is equivalent to other International standards including:
- JCI
- Haute Authorite de Sante,
- Australian Council on Healthcare Standards,
- Japan Council for Quality in Health Care,
- National Committee for Quality Assurance in the United States (U.S.)
Moreover, it’s standards have actually been accredited by ISQUA the apex body of accreditations thus actually making NABH accreditation at par with the world’s most leading and best hospital accreditations.
Difference between NABH Accreditation and NABH Certification
NABH offers accreditation services and certification services depending up on the type of your healthcare organization. Accreditation is for a period of 3 years whereas certification is given for a period of 2 years.
Eligibility for NABH accreditation
Following organization can go for NABH accreditation:
- Hospitals (Large, SHC, CHC & PHC)
- Blood banks
- Blood storage centers
- Dental clinics
- Medical imaging services
- Oral Substitution Therapy (OST) Centre
- Allopathic clinics
- AYUSH hospitals
- Wellness centres
NABH certification is given for the following categories/organisations:
- Entry level hospitals
- Medical laboratories
- Nursing excellence
- Emergency departments
- Hospital infection control
NABH Accreditation procedure
Any organisation planning to get NABH accredited has to go through the following 7 stages. Depending upon the size and scope of organisation it can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years to complete the whole process.
- Organisation wide implementation of the standard
- Internal auditing/Self assessment
- Application for accreditation:
- Pre-Assessment:
- Final Assessment:
- Accreditation
- Surveillance and Re assessment
Implementing the NABH standard
Depending upon the activities, scope and size of your organisation the standard will be different. In general the implementation will include the following procedures
- Training all staff on the respective standard
- Documentation of manuals, SOPs, work instructions, records etc
- Meeting infrastructure requirements
- Meeting mandatory Government rule and Industry regulations
Key benefits of NABH accreditation
In India, Heath System currently actually operates within an environment of rapid social, economical as well as technical changes. Such changes actually further raise the concern for the quality of health care. Accreditation would be the single most important approach for improving the quality of healthcare facilities.
National accreditation systems for healthcare organisations (HCO) ensure that they, whether public or private, national or expatriate, play their expected roles in national health system.
Verifying NABH accreditation
If your organisation has applied for or got accredited to NABH standard your organisation’s detail will be provided on NABH website for anyone to verify. This ensures transparency and prevents organisations from making false claim about accreditation.
Entry level and Progressive level accreditation
NABH provides two types of accreditation- Entry level and progressive level.
Entry level accreditation fee is far less compared to that of progressive level accreditation. Also the standards to follow in entry level accreditation are less compared to other one. Progressive level accreditation is the full accreditation. If your organisation is not used to following any quality standards like ISO 9001 or not confident of maintaining the standards we recommend that you go for entry level accreditation and later on move to progressive level.
NABH Accreditation costs
Accreditation costs vary depending upon the scope and size of your organisation. It will usually include the following and can come anywhere from Rs 2 lakhs to 15 lakhs
- Cost of training, documentation and implementation
- Consultant fee
- Auditor travel, boarding & lodging
- Accreditation fee
- Application fee
- Costs for improving facilities
NABH Awareness training
If you are looking for receiving awareness training on the whole procedures, fees policies and guidelines on NABH accreditation we can help you. With years of experience in providing consultancy services for NABH accreditation we are well equipped to assist any healthcare organization through the accreditation process in the shortest lead time.
