Background: Quality Improvement (QI) is the organised approach to design and apply constant development in performance. QI in hospitals increase patient satisfaction, staff satisfaction as well as the quality of care provided by an organisation. In India quality of hospitals is assessed by different standards which primarily included those laid down by National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH), which were introduced in 2006 by Quality Council of India (QCI). In 2018, National Health Authority (NHA), introduced Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB -PMJAY) Quality Certification standards, in collaboration with Quality Council of India (QCI), for enhancing patient satisfaction and improving quality standards across the hospitals.
Objectives:The study was carried out with the objective to compare the AB-PMJAY Gold standard with NABH 5 th Edition, and to identify challenges faced by hospitals for ensuring compliance to these standards.
Methods:The study design was descriptive cross sectional and was carried in a multi-specialty hospital in Rajasthan in 2022. The study was carried out with the objective to find out similarities and differences in AB-PMJAY and NABH standards. All the 5 chapters (Key Inputs, Clinical Service, Support Services, Patient Care, Health Outcomes) and 53 quality standards of AB-PMJAY were included in the study. Similarly, all the 10 chapters of NABH 5 th Edition, including all 100 standards and objective elements were 651 were included in the study. The study was carried out in quality department of a hospital for preparing the hospital team for NABH and AB-PMJAY accreditation.Results: It is found that AB-PMJAY broadly covers all the quality standards of NABH. Some of the challenges identified in implementation of NABH standards were that it requires more documentation, skilled staff, training need with skilled trainer/coordinator, and the NABH standards are very elaborative and descriptive. The challenges in implementation of AB-PMJAY Gold standards were that to achieve them, hospital have to make improvement in their structural, procedural, and clinical outcomes. The similarities of the standards were that both AB-PMJAY and NABH are constituent board of Quality Council of India (QCI), and both have common target of improving patient's safety and quality of care. The differences include that in more documentation is required