Hospitals get global accreditation

As foreign patients flock to India, hospitals in India are gearing up to meet the quality requirements by adopting global healthcare standards.

Wockhardt Hospitals, after getting an EU certification, has received accreditation from Joint Commission International (JCI), USA. JCI is the gold standard in global healthcare standards. With this, Wockhardt Hospitals joins an elite group of 71 hospitals globally which have passed JCI's clinical quality standards.

JCI is the international arm of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organisations which evaluates standards at US hospitals.

Along with Wockhardt, Indraprasta Hospitals of New Delhi has accreditation as a multi-speciality hospital. "With this, Wockhardt now joins the ranks of well-known Harvard-affiliated hospitals like Massachusettes General, Brigham and Women and Joslin Diabetes Center, which have the coveted accreditation," said Vishal Bali, vice president Wockhardt Hospitals.

In addition to JCI, Wockhardt Hospital has also secured recognition under the Directorate National Board to provide superspeciality training in cardiac and cardiovascular training, he added. With rising costs and lengthening waiting lists in the West, patients from Europe and US are choosing to get treatment in Indian hospitals.

"Earlier, middle class people from West Asia used to frequent India for their medical needs, but post-9o11, the wealthy Gulf population have begun to land in hordes," said Bali.

In addition to West Asians, hospitals get patients from South East Asia, Western Europe (mainly from UK) and the US. Patients are coming to India mainly for tertiary care like heart surgeries, high-end orthopaedic treatments (joint replacements) and minimal access surgeries.

With the trend picking up, nearly 1.60 lakh patients have been hospitalised or received treated in Indian hospitals during 2005 as compared to 1.10 lakh in 2004. Baseline surgery cost in the West is $25,000 to $30,000. But in India the cost is about a fourth at $6,000 to $8,000.

As numbers are rising, many hospital groups are going in for quality certifications from European and US organisations to tap this lucrative business.