AYUSHMAN BHARAT – PRADHAN MANTRI JAN AAROGYA YOJANA
Challenge
Today, one of the biggest healthcare policy concerns in India is the ‘Quality’ of health services being offered. This present state of healthcare services is due to the inefficiency and lack of quality of services provided by healthcare providers at various levels. Hence, creating formidable challenges and gaps in ensuring the quality of health service, which is a ‘prime target’ of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB PMJAY). There are ~16000 empanelled hospitals under PMJAY which needed to be assessed on basic quality standards.
The National Health Authority (NHA) which is the apex body responsible for overseeing the implementation of PMJAY, tied up with the Quality Council of India (QCI) to develop a Quality Assessment system under the scheme.
Approach
QCI, after consultations with renowned healthcare experts and NHA has come up with AB PMJAY Bronze Quality Standards. For the same, QCI developed a technology platform comprising of web portal and mobile application through which the empanelled hospitals can apply and submit the information. This platform smoothens the process of application and assessment of hospitals. Care has been taken to ensure that the language used is simple to understand even for the general administration of the hospital.
Outcome
Ayushman Bharat is one of the flagship programmes of the present Central government. It is a visionary step towards advancing the agenda of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) alongside enhancing the standards of quality in the hospitals of the country for complete patient safety. The technology platform will reduce the time taken in the assessment process. Moreover, the certification process is a time-bound process, which makes this whole process transparent, accountable and simple.
This programme can benefit government to acquire a national perspective on the quality of healthcare in India. It will help in improving its quality assessments on the whole. Apart from this, the data collected on the technology portal can be harnessed to derive insights that can be used to monitor public health and help the policymakers at national level who manage the health system performance.
Last modified: May 22, 2023
