• Accreditation of hospitals for continuous improvement
• EMR for improving healthcare delivery
• Patient Safety
• Healthcare marketing to enhance access

In order to address issues relating to quality and patient safety, the Standardization of Healthcare Delivery System has become the focus worldwide. The focus of accreditation is on continuous improvement in the organizational and clinical performance of health services, not just the achievement of a certificate or award or merely assuring compliance with minimum acceptable standards. How quality is maintained and improved in hospitals and healthcare services is a subject of much debate. Hospital accreditation is one recognized means by which this can be achieved. The different accreditation schemes vary in quality, size, intent and the skill of their marketing. They also vary considerably in terms of the cost incurred by hospitals and healthcare institutions. They have varying degrees of commitment to assessing medical ethical and clinical standards. In this context, the purpose of this module is to gain a better understanding of the concept of accreditation including:

• What accreditation is?
• What are the various accreditation systems available for hospitals?
• What efforts and resources go into getting and maintaining accreditations?
• Advantages and disadvantages of accreditation etc.

• Introduction to the concept of ‘Accreditation’
  
  Dr. A. Malathi
  Head, Medical Services, Compliance & Education, Manipal Hospital, Bangalore
• JCI Accreditation-Process, benefits and challenges
  
  Dr. Umesh Gupta
  Founder & Principal Consultant at Delphi Healthcare Research, Founder & MD of Niramaya Hospitals, New Delhi
• NABH Accreditation-Process, benefits and Challenges
  
  Dr. Nirmal Fredrick
  Managing Director, Nirmal Eye Hospital, Chennai
• Free paper presentation – 1
• Free paper presentation - 2

• An introduction to EMR by the moderator
• Challenges and Benefits in Implementing EMR
  Introducing Electronic Medical Record in the hospital helps in saving the cost of space and time, makes easy accessibility of patient information, improves clinical decision making thus improves quality of care, provides support in research and overall increases hospital process efficiency. This session will explore both the challenges in implementation and the potential benefits of EMR.
• A Presentation on “A hospital’s experience with EMR”
  This presentation covers the experience of a hospital in the process of implementing EMR. The speakers will present the hospital’s rationale for deciding to implement EMR, the actual cost and time involved, the employee training process, security and privacy issues and overall benefits after implementing. The presentation will also cover the thumb-rules to be followed while implementing an EMR system.
This will be followed by two paper presentations on the theme, by the participating delegates.

Patient safety has become one of the central concerns in quality improvement in health care both nationally and internationally. It remains the basis of quality in health care delivery. Prevention of medical error should be the priority of all caregivers. Yet, this is a poorly addressed problem. WHO’s estimates show that in developed countries as many as one in ten patients is harmed while receiving hospital care. The harm can be caused by a range of errors or adverse events. Patient safety is defined as “the reduction and mitigation of unsafe acts within the health care system, as well as the use of best practices shown to lead to optimal patient outcomes.”

The overall objective of this module is to understand the discipline of patient safety, international standards and its role in minimizing the incidence and impact of adverse events. The module will also describe patient safety initiatives in the Indian context.

• Patient Safety – An Introduction
  
  Dr R D Ravindran
  Chairman, Aravind Eye Care System, Madurai
• Strategies and Tools for Patient Safety
  
  Dr. A Malathi
  Head, Medical Services, Compliance & Education, Manipal Hospital, Bangalore
• Evidence Based Patient Safety Practices
  Patient Safety in India
  
  Dr.Sanjeev K Singh
  Medical Superintendent, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Kochi
• Panel Discussion
  Audience interaction with the experts
• Free Paper Presentation 1
• Free Paper Presentation 2

It is a constant struggle for healthcare providers to grapple with underutilisation of healthcare infrastructure and to ensure costs are under control. The key is to tap the need for healthcare in the community, that is predominantly dormant and to convert the need into demand. In addition, health indicators of most developing countries show a dismal picture. While poor health infrastructure and poor access to care are the main contributors for this scenario, this is further compounded by lack of awareness and poor health-seeking behaviour (Source: Health Behaviour in Developing Countries; Pascaline Dupas). On another note, it has been reported through various studies that over 60% of patients opt for a healthcare provider based on good feedback from their friends and relatives. In healthcare, more than in other service sectors, word-of-mouth recommendation is key in improving footfalls into the hospital (Source: Sourcebook of Health Insurance Data, 1999). Thus, healthcare marketing in such a context must begin with awareness creation, must create access to affordable healthcare and should ensure that service providers are responsive to patients expectations ensuring a positive patient experience.

Healthcare marketing is an essential strategy for service providers to generate demand. There are many challenges unique to the healthcare service sector and to developing countries that require the marketing efforts to be more creative and should be designed to overcome barriers that patients face in accessing care.

• Creating demand through health education:
  This often means that service providers should proactively reach out to patients to educate them on the need for the service and to attract them to seek care. In the long term these strategies should cultivate the health-seeking and compliance behaviour in the community.
• Healthcare marketing strategies– creative ways to generate demand:
  Traditional marketing skills such as market research, service design, pricing, promotion and quality assurance need to be supplemented by leveraging emerging technologies. Urban healthcare consumers increasingly expect relevant and easily accessible information that’s conveniently available. Healthcare marketers should learn how to assess user needs, expectations, and behaviours to enhance online patient experiences.
• Ensuring positive patient experience and leveraging word of mouth:
  The real test of healthcare marketing is in the actual patient experience. It is in this that service providers truly succeed or fail. Ensuring good patient experience demands internal health education, good clinical quality, patient centred care and moderating patient expectations.