Crisil to rate Indian healthcare services

Credit Rating Information Services of India Ltd (Crisil), on request from Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), will provide accredition services to Indian hospitals to help them attract attracting patients from the UK's National Health Service (NHS).

"Crisil is also working for Indian Health Care Forum (NHCF) and National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) to rate quality health services in India," said Kanchan Arora, branch head, Crisil Ahmedabad.

Crisil's rating of healthcare institutions is an opinion on the relative quality of healthcare delivered by an institution to its patients.

The grade assigned to a healthcare institutions is applicable for a specific healthcare facility and is not applicable to the entire healthcare organisation.

The grading scale for healthcare institutions will have two components. First the hospital is classified as nursing home, general secondary care, specialty secondary care, single-specialty tertiary care or multi-specialty tertiary care, then the hospital is rated

The hospital classification will be based on a number of specialty services offered by the hospital. Grade A reflects very good quality, while Grade B shows good quality.

The health care institution graded in the Grade A category has enough facilities, equipment, manpower and the service quality levels are consistent with the highest standards in the Indian healthcare industry.

Grade B reflects, the good quality of healthcare given to the patients but lower than the Grade A hospitals. Grade C reflects an average quality, while Grade D reflects poor quality.

Crisil employs a multi-layered decision-making process in assigning grading, which results in thoroughness and transparency in the grading process.

The process, from the initial to management meeting to the final, normally takes around three to four weeks for a multi-specialty tertiary care hospital and around one to two weeks for a nursing home.

Crisil has developed the healthcare grading methodology based on eight broad parameters, after an in-depth analysis of various grading criteria adopted by several international agencies in the US, Australia and Canada.

Crisil has so far rated 14 healthcare institutions in India, which includes three state governments hospitals. Among the single specialty tertiary care hospital, Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, New Delhi has achieved grade A.

Among multi-specialty tertiary care hospitals, Apollo Hospital, Chennai, Apollo Indraprastha Hospital, New Delhi and Bombay Hospital and Medical Research Center, Mumbai has achieved grade A. Sterling Hospital, Ahmedabad has received Grade B.