NABH Full Form - What does It Stand for in Medical?

NABH full form in medical terms is National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers. The National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) is a body that accredits hospitals and healthcare providers in India. 

NABH accreditation is a process through which healthcare providers get recognised for their quality and safety standards. Accreditation ensures that healthcare providers meet specific quality benchmarks. It provides a seal of approval to the hospital or healthcare provider.

The accreditation is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. After an organisation receives the accreditation certification, it is valid for a specific period, and NABH conducts regular surveillance visits to ensure continued compliance. These surveillance visits are typically scheduled during the second year of accreditation of the organisation.

NABH accreditations aim to promote a culture of excellence and safety in healthcare, assessing and improving the quality of care, safety, and patient satisfaction in various healthcare settings. The aim and objectives of NABH are:

1. Credibility: Provide trustworthy services that are valuable additions.
2. Responsive: Being open to feedback and enhancing services constantly
3. Transparency: Clear communication and access to information to the stakeholders.
4. Innovation: It incorporates change, originality, lifelong learning, and fresh concepts to improve the services offered by healthcare.

NABH-accredited healthcare providers ensure everyone receives safe, effective, high-quality care. The key features of NABH are:

1. Establishing Quality Standards: One of the most important aims is establishing and maintaining quality benchmarks for healthcare providers in India. It intends to set a standard for quality healthcare services that healthcare providers can strive to achieve.
2. Promoting Patient Safety: A safe and secure environment is created for patients to receive high-quality care and treatment. Patient safety and quality of care in healthcare facilities are ensured.
3. Patient Awareness: An awareness is created among healthcare providers about the rights and responsibilities of the patient. This ensures that patients are treated with dignity and respect.
4. Evidence-Based Practices: Healthcare providers are encouraged to adopt evidence-based practices and innovations in healthcare delivery. It helps them stay up-to-date with the latest medical science and technological advances to provide patients with the best care.
5. Risk Management: NABH accreditation includes specific standards related to risk management and patient safety, helping hospitals to identify and mitigate risks and improve overall safety for patients and staff.

NABH accreditation benefits the healthcare organisation, staff, regulatory bodies and patients. It can help hospitals to provide better patient care and services while improving the overall operations and reputation of the hospital.

Benefits for the Healthcare Organisation

1. Continuous Improvement: Accreditation to a healthcare organisation stimulates the constant improvement of patient services. 
2. Quality Care: NABH accreditation ensures that hospitals meet specific standards related to patient care, safety, and outcomes, resulting in improved quality of care for patients.
3. Enhanced Credibility: The accreditation is widely recognised as a mark of quality and excellence in healthcare, improving the credibility of hospitals and their reputation among patients, staff, and other stakeholders.
4. Competitive Healthcare: The NABH accreditation process helps hospitals identify improvement areas and implement best practices. It leads to increased efficiency and better use of resources.
5. Medical Tourism: When the standards are certified, it gives international recognition, which helps to promote medical tourism. 

Benefits for the Patients

1. Patient-Centred: Patients are the biggest beneficiary among all the stakeholders.
2. High-Quality Care: The hospitals must follow standardised processes and best practices, ensuring consistency in care delivery and reducing the risk of errors or adverse events.
3. Patient Safety: It includes specific risk management and patient safety standards. The hospitals identify and mitigate risks and improve overall patient and staff safety.
4. Protected Rights: It protects the patients' rights and assists them in making more informed decisions about their care. 
5. Patient Satisfaction: Evaluation of patient satisfaction is regularly evaluated. This helps in improving the standard of healthcare management.

These NABH accreditations help healthcare providers improve their quality of care, safety, and patient satisfaction with the best possible treatment and care.

1. Hospitals:  The NABH Standards for Hospitals ensure that hospitals provide patients with the best care and safety. It is done by assessing and improving the quality of care, safety, and satisfaction of the patient.
2. Small Healthcare Organizations (SHO): All hospitals and nursing homes with a bed capacity of up to 50 sanctioned beds would be a roadmap to healthcare standardisation.
3. Blood Banks:  It ensures that protocols are standardised, resulting in compliance with quality and safety standards at a blood centre.
4. Medical Imaging Services (MIS): General guidelines for all diagnostic and interventional imaging services are provided by the NABH Accreditation for MIS standards. It will address delivery quality issues and improve quality.
5. Dental Facilities/Dental Clinics: The main focus of the standards is on patient safety, quality of care, knowledge updation, trained staff and environment protection.
6. Allopathic Clinics: It includes proper and thorough quality assurance requirements for allopathic clinics that are naturally aligned with hospital standards.
7. Medical Laboratory Services: Medical laboratories must follow high-quality and safe practices, from sample collection to reporting results. Hence, patients receive accurate and reliable diagnostic testing.
8. AYUSH Hospitals: The NABH Standards for AYUSH Hospitals ensure that AYUSH hospitals follow high-quality and safe practices to receive safe and effective traditional and alternative treatments.
9. Primary Health Centre: To develop better health facility systems and achieve the goal of universal health coverage, primary healthcare must be improved. Therefore, NABH has created applicable and simple quality assurance criteria for primary healthcare facilities.
10. Clinical Trial (Ethics Committee): It will increase the safety of the clinical trial process in India. For this, it is necessary to comply with the established norms for the accreditation of ethics committees.
11. Panchakarma Clinics:  An authorised Panchakarma clinic will adhere to nationally recognised standards. This programme aids in enhancing the standard of patient care in clinics. 
12. Eye Care Organisation: They play a crucial role in the healthcare system, and accreditation is the most vital strategy for raising the standard and safety of eye treatment for patients. Compliance with certification requirements in critical situations enhances service quality and produces positive clinical results.

The accreditation process is designed to help healthcare providers improve the quality and safety of their care and ensure that patients receive safe, effective, and high-quality care. 

NABH accreditation is a mark of excellence that can help healthcare providers stand out and give patients the best possible care.

1. Application for Accreditation: A healthcare organization (HCO) must complete the application form and pay the fee. The HCO should fill out the accreditation form and provide correct information about their services and other required details.
2. Registration of Application: Once the NABH Secretariat receives the completed application form, necessary documents, and fees from the HCO, they will provide an acknowledgement to the organization.
3. Appointment of Principal Assessor: The primary assessor will be in charge of both the pre-assessment and on-site assessment of the healthcare organization (HCO) and will be responsible for the evaluation.
4. Pre-Assessment: HCO must ensure their preparedness by conducting its self-assessment and internal audit before the pre-assessment. It will be conducted within three months of applying.
5. Assessment: Once the healthcare organization (HCO) confirms they have addressed any inadequacies, NABH will propose an assessment team for the final evaluation. The final assessment must be completed within six months of the pre-assessment visit.
6. Scrutiny of Assessment Report: NABH will review the assessment report and communicate the assessment results to the healthcare organization (HCO). They will ensure that any non-conformances raised by the assessment team, which were not resolved in the evaluation, are available to and understood by the HCO.
7. Accreditation Committee: Once the healthcare organization (HCO) has taken satisfactory corrective action, the NABH officer will prepare a concise summary of all relevant information gathered while processing the application, assessment report, and any additional information by the HCO.
8. Issue of Accreditation Certificate: If the recommendation for accreditation is approved, the NABH officer will prepare the accreditation certificate. It will then be issued to the organization. 

The accreditation standards are designed to establish a culture of safety at all levels and set expectations for the delivery of high-quality emergency care that is safe and equitable. This ultimately results in improved clinical outcomes for patients. To achieve this, there are certifications offered by NABH, which include:

1. Entry Level Hospital: This certification is for hospitals and healthcare organizations that provide inpatient care and other hospital-based services and ensure they meet high safety, quality, and efficiency standards.
2. Entry Level Small Healthcare Organizations: Small healthcare organizations such as clinics, nursing homes, and standalone diagnostic centres ensure that they meet basic safety standards, quality, and efficiency.
3. Entry Level AYUSH Centre: It ensures that blood meets high standards of safety, quality, and efficiency in the collection, processing, testing, and distribution of blood and blood products.
4. Nursing Excellence: Nursing facilities ensure that they meet high safety, quality, and efficiency standards in providing better healthcare services.
5. Medical Laboratory Programme: This certification is for medical imaging facilities and ensures that they meet high standards of safety, quality, and efficiency in providing medical imaging services such as X-rays, ultrasounds, and CT scans.
6. Emergency Department: The standards established by NABH offer a framework for ensuring quality care and patient safety in emergency departments while promoting ongoing quality improvement efforts.

Apart from learning the NABH full form in the medical field, you can also see how hospitals and other medical facilities benefit from NABH accreditation from the above article. We also saw the NABH standards that ensure overall development and improvement in healthcare facilities.