Accreditation & Certification

NABH

NABH is an acronym for National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers. It is a constituent board of Quality Council of India set up to establish and operate accreditation programme for hospitals. NABH was established in the year 2006. Quality Council of India and National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers have designed an exhaustive healthcare standard for hospitals. This standard consists of stringent 500 plus objective elements for the hospital to achieve in order to get the NABH accreditation. NABH is equivalent to JCI and other international standards, including HAS (Haute Autorite de Sante), Australian Council on Healthcare Standards, SHQS (Finland), Japan Council for Quality in Health Care, National Committee for Quality Assurance, NCQA (USA). Their standards have been accredited by ISQUA, the apex body accrediting the accreditators, thus making NABH accreditation at par with the world’s most leading hospital accreditations.To comply with these standard elements, the hospital will need to have a process-driven approach in all aspects of hospital activities – from registration, admission, pre-surgery, peri-surgery and post-surgery protocols, discharge from the hospital to follow-up with the hospital after discharge. Not only the clinical aspects but the governance aspects are process-driven based on clear and transparent policies and protocols. In a nutshell, NABH aims at streamlining the entire operations of a hospital.

NABL

National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) is an autonomous body under the aegis of Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, and is registered under the Societies Act 1860. NABL has been established with the objective to provide Government, Industry Associations and Industry in general with a scheme for third-party assessment of the quality and technical competence of testing and calibration laboratories. Government of India has authorized NABL as the accreditation body for Testing and Calibration Laboratories. In order to achieve this objective, NABL provides laboratory accreditation services to laboratories that are performing tests / calibrations in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025:2005 and ISO 15189:2007 for medical laboratories. These services are offered in a non-discriminatory manner and are accessible to all testing and calibration laboratories in India and abroad, regardless of their ownership, legal status, size and degree of independence. NABL accreditation system complies with ISO/IEC 17011:2004 and Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) MR001. Based on evaluation of NABL operations by APLAC in 2000, NABL has been granted signatory member status by APLAC and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) under their Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs). Under these MRAs, the reports issued by NABL accredited laboratories are considered to be equivalent to reports issued by laboratories accredited by (currently) 76 accreditation bodies in 64 economies. NABL has undergone re-evaluation by four member APLAC evaluation team in July 2008. APLAC/ILAC has recommended NABL’s Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) status for further four years with extension of scope for Medical Testing laboratory as per new international standard ISO 15189:2007