Quality Council of India (QCI) ‘s National Accreditation Board for Hospital and Healthcare Providers, (NABH), has launched a programme of accreditation of wellness centres like gyms, spas, cosmetic and skin treatment centres in the country.
Quality Council of India (QCI) ‘s National Accreditation Board for Hospital and Healthcare Providers, (NABH), has launched a programme of accreditation of wellness centres like gyms, spas, cosmetic and skin treatment centres in the country.
Dr Bhawna Gulati of NABH says, “For the ordinary customer, this means that the gym or beauty centre that has gained such accreditation offers care and services of a required standard. People should be assured about getting what they are paid for. Accreditation means credibility. It makes all the difference between genuineness and quackery and that the massages offered are done by properly trained professionals.” The accreditation system identifies standards for wellness centres in a largely unregulated market that has seen huge growth. The accreditation programme is voluntary. Standards were fixed by a panel of experts. Aspects like customer rights and education, infection control, training of staff, infrastructure, processes and statutory and regulatory compliances were taken into consideration. The wellness accreditation is valid for three years.
The wellness & healthcare sector has so far been unregulated and subject to quackery by a handful of people who tarnish the Industry by making money using whatever means possible. The sector is looking at building up credibility for their services through a self-regulatory process of accreditation. Tthe Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) worked jointly with NABH on the standards.
The Indian health and wellness market is estimated to be growing at 25% a year. The total number of spas in the country is 2,300. In the next four years, 700 new spas, both homegrown and international brands will open in India to meet the growing demand. Destination / hotel spas is another growing category where spas can contribute up to 15 per cent of a hotel’s revenue and in some cases is the second fastest income generator in the hotel after rooms. At present, India has around 20-25 major spa centers; most of them are spread in the southern states such as Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
There had been a significant rise in the health care facilities under AYUSH (Ayurveda Yoga Unani, Siddha Homeopathy). There are 3,400 AYUSH hospitals in the country. There are 12 Yoga hospitals as well. NABH is introducing Accreditation Standards for AYUSH Hospitals.
The accreditation programme for AYUSH Hospitals consists of two kinds of standards – accreditation and structural. Accreditation standards are based on three components- structure, process and outcome. These standards measure the quality and safety aspects of the care delivered to the patients. Structural standards that are basically deals with infrastructural requirements to help the organisations to deliver quality of care. For each speciality i.e. Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Unani, Siddha. Yoga and Naturopathy there are separate accreditation and structural standards as per their individual system of medicine and requirements.
A minimum bed number of 10 is essential for an AYUSH Hospital to be considered for the accreditation programme. The standards provide a framework for quality assurance and quality improvement for the AYUSH hospitals. The standards focus on all aspects of service delivery like customer rights and education, infection control practices, trained and experienced staff, infrastructure, environment safety, processes and controls among many others, statutory and regulatory compliances. The standards have been developed in association with the Department of AYUSH.
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