Accreditation's role in reducing medical errors

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.

Medical errors: overcoming the challenges

The issue of medical errors has received substantial attention in recent years. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report released in 1999 has several implications for health care systems in all disciplines of medicine. Notwithstanding the plethora of available information on the subject, little, by way of substantive action, is done toward medical error reduction. A principal reason for this may be the stigma associated with medical errors. An educational program with a practical, informed, and longitudinal approach offers realistic solutions toward this end. Effective reporting systems need to be developed as a medium of learning from the errors and modifying behaviors appropriately. The presence of a strong leadership supported by organizational commitment is essential in driving these changes. A national, provincial or territorial quality care council dedicated solely for the purpose of enhancing patient safety and medical error reduction may be formed to oversee these efforts. The bioethical and emotional components associated with medical errors also deserve attention and focus.

Pushing the profession: how the news media turned patient safety into a priority

The problem of patient safety has been repeatedly identified in the medical literature since the mid 1950s, but regular revelations about patient deaths and injuries resulting from treatment have had almost no effect on the actual practice of medicine. Only very recently has the medical profession made a systematic effort to reduce or eliminate the many preventable deaths and injuries that occur in hospitals each year. This review traces the diffusion of innovation in medical error reduction to the public shaming of the profession that occurred as a result of stories that appeared in the news media. The focus is on the USA, but news stories about patient safety are sparking a similar process throughout the western world.