National Quality Assurance Standards:
A total of 50,373 public health facilities across all States and Union Territories have been certified under the National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS).
- National Quality Assurance Standards is a comprehensive quality framework established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
- It is aimed at ensuring and enhancing the quality of healthcare services provided at public health facilities.
- It was initially focusing on District Hospitals to ensure safe, patient-centric, and quality-assured services.
- NQAS are currently available for District Hospitals, Sub-District Hospitals, Community Health Centres, Ayushman Arogya Mandir–PHCs, AAM–UPHCs, and AAM–Sub Health Centres.
- These standards are primarily meant for providers to assess their own quality for improvement through pre-defined standards and to bring up their facilities for certification.
- These are broadly arranged under 8 “Areas of Concern” namely; Service Provision, Patient Rights, Inputs, Support Services, Clinical Care, Infection Control, Quality Management and Outcome.
