National Accreditation Consultant | Mantra Care

What is NABH?

NABH stands for National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers. The primary purpose of NABH is to establish and operate an accreditation program for Healthcare and Hospital organizations. The constituent Board of Quality Council of India takes care of the much-desired requirements of the consumers so that they can set some targets and Benchmarks for the progress of the health industry. The NABH is supported by various stakeholders like consumers, government, and industry. Of all the stakeholders, consumers, significantly, the patients are highly benefited from the norms of NABH.

Benefits of NABH Accreditation

• There are a lot of benefits to all the hospitals/ clinics with Full NABH or the Entry level NABH. Some significant benefits of NABH have been listed below:
• Hospitals get better rates from insurance companies and government panels. For example, CGHS pay 10-20% higher reimbursement rates to NABH empanelled hospitals.
• Source of huge recognition to the hospital, and helps build customer trust.
• Makes the hospital eligible for the service of global patients..
• Regularly monitored results help the employees and other staff members to ensure better services and amenities to the patients.
• Reduction in Hospital Infections, Medical Errors and Accidents, resulting in reducing unnecessary stay at the hospital
• Reduction in Costs through improving Operational Efficiency
• Better Staff Utilisation through training & clearer assignment of roles and responsibilities with credentialing and privileging
• Optimising usage of Materials with better Inventory Management, avoiding of Stock-outs

NABH Programs

NABH has accreditation programs for:

• Hospitals
• Nursing Homes
• Health Care Organizations
• Blood Banks & Transfusion services
• Primary or Secondary Health Centers
• Medical Imaging Services
• Dental Hospitals/Centers
• Eye care Hospitals/ Clinics
• AYUSH hospitals, etc.

Procedure for NABH Accreditation


It is a five-step procedure to apply for NABH Accreditation:

Submission of application to NABH

The application should accommodate the application fee, self-declaration on the terms and conditions, filled self-assessment form, And other mandatory documents like Hospital policies, fire NOC, lift NOC, MCA related NOC, police NOC, Pollution NOC, address proof, and ID of the day Hospital directors, Bank statements and electricity bill, amount of shares, details of the percentage of shareholding, Signage NOC and other related documents.

Review of application by NABH

Once the officers associated with NABH receive the application of the aspirant hospital, they are supposed to scrutinize it with an acknowledgment letter for the submission and the unique reference number so that they can track the process.

Pre-assessment by committee members

NABH sends a principal Inspector or evaluation team to ensure the following aspects or for the final assessment:
Preparation of the aspirant hospital for the final assessment
Reviewal of the authenticity of documents submitted by the hospital
Clarification in the practice of the evaluation by the employees of the hospital.

Final-assessment

The aspirant hospital must take the final assessment after making the officials’ corrections during the pre-assessment by committee members. The concerned person will do a last review of all the functions and services in the final evaluation. Afterward, the hospital will get its accreditation certificate from NABH. The validity of that certificate is for three years.

Reassessment and surveillance

Since the validity of accreditation is for three years, the committee of NABH schedules a cycle of three years for the surveillance and reassessment in the hospitals. It is the hospital’s responsibility to apply for reassessment at least six months before the expiry of the validity of the accreditation. There are consequences if the hospital does not apply for the reassessment and surveillance in the given time.


NABH Documents Required


There are several statutory and non statutory documents that the NABH team will ask you to update on their protol. Key documents required by NABH are listed below:

• Hospital registration certificate
• Hospital photographs
• Any other Empanelments/ Accreditations
• Details of doctors and support staff
• List of the services provided
• Bio-medical waste certificate
• NOC from Fire department
• Lift NOC (If elevate available )
• SOPs for the various quality procedures followed at the hospital

NABH Requirements

There are several infrastructure and quality requirements that NABH has w.r.t to Operation theather and other parts of the hospital. The Key requirement are listed below:

• Disabled friendly passage, halls, and washrooms
• Modular OT
• CSSD room
• Laminar flow
• Bio-medical waste room

Preparation for NABH Accreditation

To get your Hospital accredited by NABH, the administration should prepare a plan of action to obtain a goal. The first step is to appoint a person to coordinate and check on all the activities that seek accreditation.

• The first step is to nominate a person who is familiar with the existing quality assurance system. In this way, the officer can figure out the loopholes where the hospital needs to work and what improvements are to be made.
• There must be an excellent understanding of the aspirant hospital about the assessment procedure of NABH.
• The officers appointed by the hospital should set the Benchmarks and ensure the higher standards to be implemented.
• Before presenting the quality standards to the NABH team, the hospital should undergo a self-assessment drive. If they find everything upto the mark, they can move forward with submitting the application form.

Standards to maintain for Full NABH Accreditation

There is a complete set of standards that an aspirant hospital should maintain before presenting itself for the evaluation and grant of approval:

There is a specified structure for quality improvement in the care provided to the patients by the hospital. It helps build a quality culture to maintain for all the hospitals for the grant of approval.

Patient-centered standards

• The Care of Patient (COP)
• Access, Assessment & Continuity of Care (AAC)
• The Management of Medication (MOM)
• The Hospital Infection Control (HIC)
• The Patient Right and Education (PRE)

Organization-centered standards

• The Responsibility of Management (ROM)
• The Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)
• The Facility Management and Safety (FMS)
• The Information Management System(IMS)
• The Human Resource Management (HRM)

For More Information You Can Visit- NABH Accreditation