The District General Hospital is aspiring for a higher quality tag of the National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) after maintaining quality certification from the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) for three consecutive terms.
The new standards are to ensure quality of procedures in delivery of service. The criteria were tougher since the depth of quality was measured, said A. Anitha, superintendent of the General Hospital.
Since the hospital was already accredited for quality through NABH standards, it helped to go for a higher grade, she added.
The hospital has already undergone inspections for NQAS and is awaiting results that could take a few months. The NQAS tag comes with financial incentive too. For a district-level hospital, ₹15,000 per bed will be provided annually for three years.
The fact that NABH had provided the employees at GH with a larger idea of quality service certainly helped in orienting people working in the hospital at all levels, said Dr. Anitha.
The broad areas of concern under NQAS are – service provision, patient rights, inputs, support services, clinical care, infection control, quality management and outcome. The standards meet global benchmarks in terms of comprehensiveness, objectivity, evidence and rigour of development.
NQAS standards
The NQAS have been developed in keeping with the specific requirements for public health facilities as well as global best practices. Standards are available for district hospitals, community health centres, primary health centres (PHCs) and urban PHCs.
Quality certification programme for public health facilities were brought in with an aim to recognise good facilities as well as to improve credibility of public hospitals in the community.
Even while the GH has been maintaining quality services, the human resources to deliver the services are being stretched in the large hospital which has nearly 700 functional beds. The total number of sanctioned beds in the hospital is 783, but quite a few buildings are old and unusable.
The Pandappilly Community Health Centre (CHC) in the district is the first hospital in the State to get NQAS certification. The hospital was awarded the certification from among hospitals that had got 70% marks for all parameters they were assessed for. The assessments were held in three phases. As a result of the certification, the CHC is eligible for ₹10,000 per bed annually.
