Impact of accreditation on documentation and staff perception in the ophthalmology department of an Indian medical college

Implementing a quality improvement initiative for private healthcare facilities to achieve accreditation: experience from India

BACKGROUND

The Manyata program is a quality improvement initiative for private healthcare facilities in India which provided maternity care services. Under this initiative, technical assistance was provided to selected facilities in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra which were interested in obtaining 'entry level certification' under the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) for provision of quality services. This paper describes the change in quality at those Manyata-supported facilities when assessed by the NABH standards of care.

METHODS

Twenty-eight private-sector facilities underwent NABH assessments in the three states from August 2017 to February 2019. Baseline assessment (by program staff) and NABH assessment (by NABH assessors) findings were compared to assess the change in quality of care as per NABH standards of care. The reported performance gaps from NABH assessments were then also classified by thematic areas and suggested corrective actions based on program implementation experience.

RESULTS

The overall adherence to NABH standards of care improved from 9% in the baseline assessment to 80% in the NABH assessment. A total of 831 performance gaps were identified by the NABH assessments, of which documentation issues accounted for a majority (70%), followed by training (19%). Most performance gaps could be corrected either by revising existing documentation or creating new documentation (62%), or by orienting facility staff on various protocols (35%).

CONCLUSION

While the adherence of facilities to the NABH standards of care improved considerably, certain performance gaps remained, which were primarily related to documentation of facility policies and protocols and training of staff, and required corrective actions for the facilities to achieve NABH entry level certification.

Strategies to Reduce the Cost of Medical Education in India: A Narrative Review

Background The global population is being plagued by several diseases and health conditions, and this calls for the need to adopt a strategy to enable people from all socioeconomic backgrounds to have the freedom and choice to opt for a medical profession as their career. The purpose of the current review is to explore the reasons which make medical education expensive and identify the strategies by which the cost of medical education can be minimized.

Methods An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was performed on the PubMed search engine and web site of the National Medical Commission. Relevant research articles focusing on costs in medical education published in the period 2005 to 2021 were included in the review. A total of 37 articles were selected based on their suitability with the current review objectives and analyzed. Keywords used in the search include medical education and cost in the title alone only.

Results We have to accept the fact that medical education is quite expensive and that's not the case with one nation but the trend is worldwide. It is the need of the hour to plan and implement strategies that make medical training accessible and available to people from all socioeconomic classes and regardless of other variables.

Conclusion In conclusion, the process of training medical students is expensive and accounts for a wide range of impacts on the medical aspirants. Thus, there is an indispensable need for the policy makers and the concerned stakeholders to join their hands together and take appropriate steps to minimize the overall cost of medical training, and thereby making it affordable to everyone.