Hyderabad, April 15 (Representative) The two-day Seventh International Conference of Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisations (CAHOCON)-2023, organised by Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisations (CAHO) began at HICC here on Saturday. The theme of CAHOCON 2023 is “Leadership is the Key to Quality”. Speaking on the occasion, Quality Council of India (QCI) Secretary General Dr Ravi P Singh said in order to encourage and promote quality, QCI will rate and rank 1000 NABL Accredited Hospitals in India. This work may begin in July this year. The few top-ranked hospitals will be accorded status centres of excellence, he said. Singh said post covid it has become extremely important for healthcare providers to take responsibility for patient care and safety. We must continue our collective efforts towards making India a global leader and a symbol of excellence in healthcare. To achieve this goal we have to prioritise patient care and safety as a hallmark of our quality. At NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers) we are committed to adhering to and promoting quality standards in healthcare.Healthcare is a priority both for states and the central government. The Aarogyasri Scheme in the state of Telangana is a unique Government-sponsored Community Health initiative that reflects the government’s priority.
The Medical Education System is doing well, but allied fields need to build capacity to make it robust. Skilling in allied fields is very important, he said. India’s national accreditation system under the QCI has been ranked 5th in the world in the recent Global Quality Infrastructure Index (GQII) 2021. The GQII ranks the 184 economies in the world on the basis of quality infrastructure (QI). Dr B Bhaskar Rao, Organising Chairman of CAHOCON-2023 speaking about the theme, said leadership is the key to quality. Quality consciousness must be inculcated in a healthcare professional from the days of joining the medical profession. Leadership and quality are interdependent. They are complementary to each other. Informing the audience about Telangana Health Minister T Harish Rao, who was supposed to grace, he informed that he was unable to make it to the conference due to some unavoidable circumstances. The Health minister is giving private hospitals tough competition by ensuring good quality services in government hospitals, he said. In her keynote address on Leadership-Building Culture of Quality and Safety, Ms Sangeeta Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals Group said it is not how many hospitals you have built, or how big is your facility that matters, what counts and matters the most is your commitment to patient health care. Speaking further she said if you satisfy one patient, that reaches four new patients. If you disappoint one patient, that reaches 10 potential patients and added more focus has to be put on Quality. Dr Guru N. Reddy spoke about the role of distributive leadership to meet the challenges in health care. There are no failures in the world.
But, for only those who excuse themselves. He also spoke about centralised, decentralised and distributed leadership and about how Google and OYO embraced Distributed leadership. This leadership enables people to act, establishes the shared vision, and facilitates teamwork, he said. Dr Reddy said about 12 of Google’s Sundar Pichai Qualities. Earlier in his welcome address, Dr Vijay Agarwal, President of CAHO said, CAHOCON-2023 is a big source of education and learning in Quality and safety in patient care. The conference is the culmination of the year-long activities. This will infuse energy into healthcare professionals. The conference promotes safety by reducing errors. Three hospitals were declared as “Centres for Quality Promotion of CAHO”. They include Pushpagiri Group of Eye Hospital, Secunderabad, Fortis, Mohali, Chandigarh and Caritas Hospital, Kottayam, Kerala Three Books were released by Dr RP Singh. They include: Incident to Action in Hospitals, Handbook on Hand Hygiene and Air Conditioning in Health Care facility. Souvenir-CAHOCON 2023 was launched. The conference was held in the city for the first time and attracted a record number of participants. More than 1500 are participating not just from across India but from over 15 countries. Representatives of two international accreditation bodies are also participating. It is so far the highest-ever delegates registered conference in its history.