Quality and Accreditation in India

Quality and Accreditation in India are terms that are just now taking their place in the healthcare scenario of the country. From a largely unregulated sector, healthcare is slowly but surely moving towards regulation and quality control. 

One of the simplest definitions of Quality is , “ Conformance to the requirements and customer satisfaction. “ What is accreditation? Put very simply, it can be defined as , “A voluntary process in which a healthcare organization is assessed to determine if it meets a set of standards designed to improve the safety and quality of care.” 

What started with ISO certification in the 90s has now progressed to accreditation, in the form of NABH ( National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers) , NABL ( National Accreditation Board for Laboratories), JCI ( Joint Commission International) accreditation. 

Some of the less well-appreciated facts about the healthcare sector, are:
-1 in every 10 patients are harmed during medical care (WHO)
- At any given time, 1.4 million people worldwide suffer from infections acquired in hospitals (World Alliance for Patient Safety)
- Medication errors kill about 7,000 people/yr in the US and the estimated cost is $17-$29 billion/yr (To err is human, IOM)
- 10 % of patients in acute care settings experience an adverse drug even (WHO)
- 1 in 112,994 cases of wrong-site surgery (AHRQ)
- 2 -6% hospital patients suffer from falls during their stay (To err is human,IOM)

Therefore, it is imperative that systems of Quality and Accreditation be set up in hospitals. India needs to progress to a system where Quality and Accreditation become a way of life in the healthcare sector.