IMPACT OF NABH ACCREDITATION ON MEDICAL LITIGATION IN CHRISTIAN HOSPITALS IN KERALA: A RETROSPECTIVE COMPARATIVE STUDY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.67440/ahj.vi.2510Keywords:
NABH accreditation, Medical litigation, Christian hospitals, Kerala, Patient safety, Clinical governance, Healthcare quality, Medico-legal risk.Abstract
Legal proceedings in the health sector have become a critical tool in the assessment of healthcare quality and patient safety in general. Despite the fact that National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) accreditation is recognized as a way to increase healthcare quality, its influence on medico-legal situations has not been studied sufficiently. The current retrospective comparative study assessed the impact of NABH accreditation on medico-legal situations in Christian hospitals in Kerala on the basis of medico-legal cases registered during January 2015-December 2024. The statistical analyses of the results and logistic regression were carried out in IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 29.0). It was revealed that medico-legal situations in NABH-accredited hospitals were lower in number compared to patient numbers. There was a decrease in litigation in 50.8% after accreditation (p = 0.018). Furthermore, there were better legal outcomes and lower compensations in accredited hospitals. NABH accreditation was found to be a factor that protects against adverse results from legal action (adjusted OR = 0.53, p = 0.005), while poor documentation, diagnosis and lack of informed consent were factors that increase medico-legal risk. In conclusion, the results show that NABH accreditation helps to improve clinical governance and reduce medico-legal risk in Christian hospitals.
