NABH Accreditation Empowers 100 Hospitals with Digital Health Certification

1. NABH Accreditation Empowers 100 Hospitals with Digital Health Certification Making big waves in Indian health, the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) made an important milestone on Monday. In all, 100 hospitals have received the NABH certificate for digital health. That means these hospitals are already as good as high standards in patient care. NABH introduced the digital health certification in 2023. So far, 300 hospitals have applied for it. Rizwan Koita, chairperson of NABH, spoke at the CII Hospital Tech 2024 summit. He said that the Certification ensures best practices through technology, enables hospitals to function better, and leads to improved patient outcomes. The accreditation aims to standardize the patient care. These are major fields that include registration, ICU management, inpatient care, outpatient services, and emergency departments. A self-review is conducted at the beginning, followed by an external evaluation. Hospitals can get platinum-level or gold-level NABH accreditation based on their rating. NABH checks seven areas that need evaluation for being key areas. Key areas include infrastructure, data security, information flow, and digital processes. This puts in check all the hospitals as a total sum for the quality provision of care overall. NABH is expanding its focus too. They are going to introduce a digital health certification for software products. This includes the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems and Health Information Systems (HIS). The applications for this software certification open on 1st December. Companies can apply to meet strict healthcare requirements. This is a revolutionary dual approach, certifying both hospitals and software. It will redefine healthcare delivery in India. NABH intends to set digital standards in special healthcare sectors. Areas include cancer, diabetes, and maternal care, among others. In this regard, NABH hopes to increase access to health care and the overall quality for everybody. One of the accredited hospitals is Hinduja Hospital. They have successfully obtained NABH accreditation. Hospital officials say accreditation is gold. It helps them judge their digital preparedness. The NABH hospital list continues to grow, showing a better picture in healthcare. Data security is a very important parameter. Hospitals today have many cyber threats that are thrown before them. There is a need to protect the data of the patients. That was one of the main reasons we applied for accreditation with NABH. So, we intend to keep up with the quality aspects of health service through these standards. However, not all hospitals make it easy to introduce digital technologies. Smaller hospitals are economically struggling. They find it challenging to cope with bigger chains. Many healthcare providers in India remain unorganized. It becomes difficult for them to achieve full digital integration.

2. NABH accreditation in itself is changing the face of health care in India. Factors like digital health have put NABH hospitals to seek enhanced care and safety for the patient. There is a representative change from the ever-increasing NABH hospital list.