Accreditation is not a One-time Process: Quality Assessment of Intensive Care Unit during Post-NABH Accreditation Period in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Accreditation is an integral part of quality and it is not a onetime process. This study was done to know the extent to which hospitals maintain the standards after obtaining accreditation. This study tries to find out the gaps in standards during the postaccreditation period. The objective of the study was to assess the policies of the intensive care unit (ICU) with reference to standard protocols of the National Accreditation Board for Hospital and Health Care Providers (NABH) and measures taken by the management to maintain the standards. Data was collected from a 285-bedded NABH-accredited hospital that had five ICUs and four recovery rooms by means of nonparticipant observation, semistructured interviews. Data on indicators was collected by using the hospital management information system; the questionnaire on satisfaction was filled by 30 patients/relatives who were admitted in the ICU for more than a week. Quality team was interviewed to know the perception of the management toward quality and accreditation. To know the compliance of the staff to the NABH standards, a surprise check was done in three ICUs of the hospital.Data analysis showed that the organization was not able to maintain the standards, as it had done at the time of accreditation. The quality team strongly accepted that accreditation helps in maintaining and improving quality, whereas the data from ICUs showed a wide variation in compliance. Three ICUs from the same hospital were having different compliance rates for standards, which shows that staff was not aware about the standard protocol to be followed. The patient-satisfaction questionnaire also showed that the patients were not satisfied with the services given.