The Hindu Business Line : Hospitals go in for overseas accreditations

The agenda
Hospitals are readying themselves for the accredited healthcare era and the growth of medical tourism.
Wockhardt Hospital and 3 Apollo hospitals have already earned JCI accreditations.

New Delhi , Dec. 25

"Good quality is good business," says Mr Daljit Singh, CEO of Fortis Healthcare Ltd, whose institution along with most of the country's leading hospitals is enrolling for international quality accreditations in pursuit of excellence.

These hospitals are readying themselves for the accredited healthcare era that the Health Ministry is hoping to establish with the proposed Clinical Establishment Act. They are also getting ready for the growth of medical tourism and health insurance finally taking off.

"The primary driver has to be patient safety. Healthcare systems that can generate confidence and bring in reliability in delivery of clinical treatment, will find patients who do not mind paying that little bit extra," says Mr Singh. And yes, when international health insurance players come in, organisations flaunting international quality certificates will be the preferred choice.

Fortis, which is associated with the American health delivery systems Partners HealthCare System Inc, hopes to earn its accreditations from the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals Healthcare Providers in India and from the Joint Commission International (JCI) soon. Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai and three of Apollo Hospitals in Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad have already earned their JCI certificates complying with 1,300 measurable standards of the US based organisation.

FICCI Quality Forum (FQF), registered with the International Organization for Standardization and a host of other quality standard organisations including the American Society for Quality, which helped the Capital's Moolchand Medcity run through its `Lean Six Sigma' programme, is in talks with Max Healthcare, Escort Heart Institute and Research Centre and even Government Hospitals to improve quality of healthcare. Headed by Lt. Gen. H. Lal, former Director-General, Bureau of Indian Standards, quality drivers at FQF say their programmes not only bring about an attitudinal change but make a direct impact on bottom lines.

Moolchand, for instance, is believed to have recognised hidden costs of up to 30 per cent of its turnover in the process of shedding some of its waste and inefficiencies in search of a better image. "On an average, 90 per cent of a patient's time at the hospital is spent in waiting, while only 10 per cent of it is actually spent on him being diagnosed or treated," says Mr Amit Chatterjee from FQF.

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