Entry Level NABH is compulsory for cashless
Entry level NABH can help hospitals get better rates for government schemes. Medigence provides effective and practical solutions for Entry Level NABH compliances. Although infrastructure compliances are exluded, Entry Level NABH is to be taken seriously as only an experienced NABH expert having faced at least 20 successful assessments can understand assessors’ perspective and can solve non compliances properly.
Click following link to visit IRDA notification : https://www.nabh.co/announcement/irda.pdf
HOPE
Unlike previous Entry Level NABH, HOPE has two assessments. Hospitals have to go through a desktop assessment first, and then after a successful desktop assessment, hospitals can ask for a physical assessment date. HOPE is directly managed by QCI (Quality Council of India). Medigence is the only NABH consulting company in Gujarat, with largest number of successful applications in HOPE, and having assisted few of the first 10 hospitals in achieving NABH certification through hope.
Why hire a NABH consultant company for Entry Level NABH certification?
Many small healthcare organizations try to manage Entry Level NABH project by themeselves, but are not able to because of the learning curve that is required, and the time and energy the project demands. This results in waste of tremendous amount of time, and money. Also the morale of the hospital staff and stakeholders becomes low, as they get confused and unconfident.
NABH consultant companies like Medigence can help doctors / hospital owners / hospital CEO save a lot of time, energy and resources, helping them to focus on what they do best. With 15+ years of experience, Medigence knows specific tasks to be performed, to meet the objective elements and NABH standards.
As NABH standards are highly subjective, NABH consultant companies like Medigence know exactly what is to be done, and what is the best practical solution to implement a particular NABH standard
Once you create the login of the Entry Level NABH form in the HOPE portal, it gives you 21 days to finish the 40 page application form, along with upload of all necessary documents. NABH experts at Medigence knows what documents are to be submitted beforehand, and saves you by ensuring that the application gets completed in the first attempt and you do not have to pay the fees again.
There are lot of trainings to be given to hospital staff. These are imparted by NABH experts at Medigence, saving time, resources, and energy of hospital stakeholders or admin persons.
NABH consultant companies like Medigence know the right format of the documentation to be used for implementing NABH standards.
What is Entry Level NABH?
There are more than 50000 Hospitals across India which include small nursing homes as well as large multispecialty hospitals. Many hospitals are finding the full NABH standards extremely challenging to implement due to its complexity as well as the large number of objective elements to be met and complied with.
In order to enable and help small hospitals, nursing homes and further in order to reach to the hospitals located in the remote areas, NABH in collaboration with Quality Council of India (QCI) has developed
the Entry Level NABH standards which will act as a the first step of awareness towards implementing culture of quality and patient safety in these hospitals. These standards are also termed as Pre-accreditation Entry Level standards.
The NABH Entry Level standards are roughly one fourth of the full accreditation NABH standards and thus it is relatively conceivable for all the hospitals and healthcare organizations. Also, there are minimal infrastructural changes required in your existing setup and hence it is not very difficult for a hospital to achieve the certification with the help of a right NABH consultant company.
Who can apply ?
Any new hospital aspiring to set its foot ahead towards the quality journey and join the list of NABH recognized healthcare organizations can apply and get the certification.
With IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority of India) regulation dated 29th July 2016 sited on the NABH website: https://nabh.co/Announcement/IRDA.pdf,
NABH entry level certification is mandatory and a bare minimum criteria for selection and empanelment by all the public and private insurance companies.
It is also a desirable criteria for central government health schemes including PMJAY, Ayushman Bharat & MAA Yojana.
While the full NABH have more 102 standards and 636 objective elements, the Pre-accreditation NABH standards have 45 standards and 173 objective elements for more than 50 bedded hospitals and 41 standards and 149 objective elements for less than 50 beds hospitals.
Hence, the entry level standards are suitable for all kinds of hospitals including large corporate organizations in major cities to small nursing homes in any small town across the country.
What are the advantages ?
NABH certified/accredited hospitals undoubtedly have more benefits than the non certified/accredited hospitals. While NABH pre-accreditation certification is mandatory for the hospitals who wish to provide cashless and reimbursement facilities to their patients, they may be benefited in future when they get empanelled with various government health schemes like Ayushman Bharat, PMJAY, MAA Yojana etc.
Moreover, there are various benefits for the patients being treated as well as the staff serving in such NABH certified hospitals.
While the patients are assured improved quality of care and safety at all levels of treatment, the staff’s efficiency, accountability and adherence to various standard operating procedures are ensured.
Hospital gets a competitive advantage over the non- NABH hospitals in terms of patient satisfaction and raised community confidence. The services provided by the NABH certified hospitals are benchmarked with the best and hence it helps in the hospital’s branding and marketing and promoting medical tourism.
What is the duration of Entry Level NABH?
Entire entry level NABH process is divided into various processes which have definite timelines to be adhered to. It starts with the registration process and ends when you receive the confirmation of receiving certification from the NABH authorities.
Sensitization of the staff and preparing for NABH application:
This phase takes approximately 2 months
Registration & filling up the application form:
Once your hospital is ready for applying, we help you register on the online portal for HOPE and start filling up the application form. We have 21 days only to furnish all the required details. Hence, as your NABH consultants, we shall help you fulfill all the requirements before starting to fill up the application form so that we do not miss on the deadlines.
Desktop Assessment:
NABH desktop assessment takes around 21 days. Incase there is any non-compliance noted during the same, the hospital has only 7 days to furnish the compliance report. In case there are still some non-compliances, the hospital gets another 7 days. Hence, there are approximately 2 cycles for complying with the non-conformities that may get raised during the desktop assessment
Physical Assessment:
After successful completion of the desktop assessment, the hospital shall receive a physical assessment date within 2-3 months. The assessment dates are solely managed by NABH directly and are subject to availability of NABH assessors and other conditions.
The physical assessment depending upon the size of the hospital will be of 1 man day for small hospitals and nursing homes and 2 man days for large hospitals
Closing the Non-conformities
After successful completion of the physical assessment, the hospital will have 7 days to furnish the corrective and preventive actions report also known as “closure report” in response to the non-compliances raised by the assessor. The assessor shall review the same within 7 days and may again raise certain queries if they need further clarifications. Again the hospital shall have 7 days to submit the closure report. Hence, just like the desktop assessment the hospital will get 2 chances to submit the closure reports.
NABH Accreditation committee review meeting & Certification:
The review committee meets almost every month. Hence after submission of the closure report, it will take approximately 1 month’s time while our case is reviewed. Based on the evidence received, the hospital is awarded the certificate.
Hence, the approximate duration from initiating NABH pre-entry level process in the hospital till receiving the certificate is 8-9 months. However, with full support and cooperation of our hospitals, we have been able to complete the entire process within 5-6 months!
What is the process of Entry Level NABH certification?
The hospitals preparing for NABH Entry level certification shall undergo various phases starting from preparing for the certification to receiving the certification. Medigence shall guide you and handhold your hospital at each and every stage of your NABH journey.
Preparing for NABH Certification:
The stepping stone for preparing for the certification is to sensitize your entire staff as well as stakeholders and understand the importance of the program. Our NABH experts will guide you through the entire procedure assisting you and your staff with all the required training programs, developing checklists and registers, providing forms and formats for implementation, formulating policies and procedures and conducting mock drills.
Registration & filling up the application form:
Once the hospital is ready, we shall help you to register on the HOPE portal according to the new guidelines. Once you fill the basic details and register your hospital, you will receive a temporary registration number. Our NABH consultant shall then help you in filling up the entire application form.
The application form is highly exhaustive and contains a very comprehensive sectioned questionnaire which requires plenty of details to be filled accurately, that too within a stipulated time. Once the application form is completely filled, the link for payment is activated and the hospital has to pay the annual fees online only. After the payment is successful, the hospital receives a permanent number.
Desktop Assessment:
Once the application form is successfully filled, the form will be reviewed and assessed by NABH online. Incase there is any non-compliance, the hospital is required to submit the closure report on the portal itself within a period of 7 days. The hospital only gets 2 such chances and still if the hospital fails to submit the closure report, the entire form is rejected and the hospital has to again start with the registration process and make fresh payment.
Our experienced team of NABH consultants ensures that the desktop assessment is successfully completed in a single attempt only.
Implementation, Monitoring & Mock assessment:
After desktop assessment, the hospital shall have around 2-3 months before they receive the on-site assessment dates. During this phase, our NABH experts shall ensure that all the training and implementation is an ongoing process, quality indicators are regularly monitored and mock drills are conducted as scheduled.
Just after receiving the assessment date, we shall conduct a mock assessment from another NABH expert in order to sensitize the staff as to what to expect during the actual assessment. Non-conformities shall be raised just the way it is expected in the on-site assessment and closure report will also be furnished. This exercise shall help the hospital to prepare itself fully and shall act as a grand rehearsal.
We shall also guide you about liaising with the assessor and plan the assessment schedule. Our consultant shall also guide you in preparing any pre-assessment documentation as requested by the assessor.
On-site Assessment / Physical Assessment:
On-site assessment will be done by the NABH assessor appointed by NABH. During the on-site assessment our NABH consultant shall remotely assist you from the back-end. Post assessment briefing session will be conducted immediately so as to take a note of the non-compliances raised (if any) and prepare the closure report.
Preparing & submitting the non-compliance closure report:
The hospital will have a defined time (7 days) to close all the non-compliances raised by the NABH assessor. Medigence will help you prepare and submit the closure report well within the timeline.
Committee Review & Certification
On successful acceptance of the closure report submitted, the hospital application will be sent to the certification committee for review. The committee may ask to furnish certain details after reviewing the application. Medigence shall also assist you during this final stage of your process and assist you in submission of the query reply. Final decisions taken by the committee will be then communicated to the hospital and certification will be awarded.