The National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) launched its fifth edition of accreditation standards for hospitals on 14th February.

NABH, which is a Constituent Board of Quality Council of India, was set up in 2006 with the mandate of establishing and operating accreditation programmes for healthcare organizations. NABH is linked internationally and is an institutional as well as a board member of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (lSQua). It is also a member of the Accreditation Council of ISQua.

NABH formulates its own standards for accreditation of all types of healthcare organisations and over the years, successive NABH standards have brought about a significant change in the approach taken by the healthcare organisations in managing and delivering safe healthcare services to the patients. NABH standards have been instrumental in ensuring quality care to the beneficiaries and empanelled hospitals under Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY which is a flagship scheme of Government of India to cater to 50 crore poor and vulnerable citizens of India.

As a part of the continual quality improvement, 5th edition of hospital standards have been developed by NABH in consultation with various stakeholders in the healthcare industry. The changes brought in the new edition will help the healthcare organizations in stepwise progression to mature quality system covering the full accreditation cycle. Aligning with SDG-3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) target 2030, the new edition of NABH standards focus on achieving health and wellbeing by strengthening treatment, access to healthcare and addressing emerging health issues and innovations.

The event saw the presence of Dr RP Singh - Secretary General of QCI, Dr BK Rao - Chairman of NABH, Dr Atul Mohan Kochhar - CEO of NABH, Dr Narottam Puri - Ex-Chairman of NABH, Dr Girdhar Gyani - Ex-SG of QCI and CEO of NABH. Almost 150 NABH Assessors and Technical Committee members were invited during the launch of the new standards. After the launch, NABH plans to conduct refresher courses at various places in the country to sensitise all its assessors and healthcare organisations about the changes from the previous edition of the standards.