BMC to approach NABH for accreditation of all peripheral hospitals

To improve the quality of patient care, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to go for National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH).

A meeting was held on Friday with all the deans of the four tertiary care hospitals and the chief medical superintendent of peripheral hospitals.

Dr Sudhakar Shinde, additional municipal commissioner, said they had an online meeting with the NABH committee and guided the corporation. “We are aiming for NABH accreditation for all of our major hospitals and peripheral hospitals too. It will be a long-term process, but we are beginning with the auditing of hospitals which will fill the gaps.”

NABH, formed in 2005, is a constituent board of the Quality Council of India, set up to establish and operate accreditation programmes for healthcare organisations.

The focus of NABH standards is on patient safety and the quality of the delivery of services by hospitals in the changing healthcare environment.

Dr Vivek Desai, founder of HOSMAC, a healthcare management consultancy, said while BMC hospitals will qualify for the NABH requirement infrastructure-wise, it will be an upheaval task to streamline the operational process and documentation work at these hospitals.

“For NABH, you need standard operating procedures in every segment. One must maintain records in a particular manner, staffing needs to be done, the doctor-patient ratio, nurses-patient ratio must be maintained, and everything needs to be documented,” he said.

Some district hospitals in Gujarat have NABH accreditation. So, it is not difficult for public hospitals to get the same. “It will improve patient care in civic hospitals as getting NABH accreditation means the hospital follows all safety measures, fire protocols, maintains records, etc. It will improve hygiene. Leakages, which are commonly seen in public hospitals, won’t be seen,” said Dr Desai.

He added that for NABH accreditation, one has to maintain a doctor-patient and nurses-patient ratio. “For example, the nursing ratio in an intensive care unit must be one nurse for two patients, wards also one nurse for eight-ten patients. This will improve patient care,” said Dr Desai.

As per the National Building Code, hospitals should have one toilet for every six patients. “But in most civic hospitals, it is not maintained. As the BMC starts work for NABH, these things will improve. It will also help improve academic programmes,” he said.

Dr Avinash Supe, ex-director and dean of KEM Hospital who is presently the medical director of PD Hinduja Hospital, “I personally feel this is a good initiative, but the workload at civic hospitals is a lot, and NABH will require a lot of documentation. To put all the systems in place, the hospital will require additional manpower,” he said. Hindustan Times