Calcutta: As Mishty Doi hit it off with over 2000 first rate delegates and healthcare’s quality crusaders from home and abroad, Patient safety resolve took center stage as never before at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre in the city of joy under the aegis of CAHO, a body comprising of well meaning people passionately committed to make patient safety a rule and medical error leading to death an exception all across Indian healthcare landscape.
This patient safety resolve resounded in Dr B C Roy fame City of Joy raising hope that an optimized value chain of care wherein everyone regardless of the geography they are in or economic status they are of, get the same high quality of treatment, will take shape in India as well. The digital technology was looked at as a means which might speed up this seemingly not an easy goal.
In a curtain raiser meeting of CAHO ( Consortium of accredited healthcare organizations) family at Taj City on the eve of two day CAHOCON in Calcutta beginning April 6, Dr Malathi Arshanapalai, Group Chief Medical Officer and Group Chief Quality Officer, Aster DM Healthcare, Dubai hit the right note albeit in a lighter vein when she sang one liner ‘CAHO Naa Patients Se Pyaar Hai’ echoing a Bollywood blockbuster, though given the enormity of task on hand, there is nothing filmy about CAHO’s mandate of making patient safety throughout India a reality.
Dr Vijay Agarwal, Patriarch and President of CAHO and Dr Girdhar Gyani, DG at Association of Healthcare Providers (India) and CAHO’s mountain of strength hailed as father of Quality were pleasantly watching the surging enthusiasm to make CAHO a Quality benchmark of Indian healthcare. Profound satisfaction was writ large on the faces of people driving CAHO’s quality quest.
The launching of CAHO International added to the fervor of curtain raiser. The joy of Dr Lallu Joseph, the leading lady of CAHO and its Secretary General, knew no bounds amply evidenced by smile eternally etched on her face the while. Christian Medical College Vellore fame quality manager, Dr (Mrs) Joseph is inarguably a huge power and driving force behind CAHO’s giant leap forward in just 11 years of its existence. Dr (Mrs) Lallu being chosen as ISQua (International Society for Quality in Healthcare) expert itself speaks a volume about wealth of quality enhancing expertise that she brings with her.
Cut to first day (April 6) of CAHOCON at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre, passion for patient safety was palpable. Inaugurated by Governor of West Bengal Dr C V Anand Bose, the 8th annual conference of CAHO clearly seemed at an inflection point and poised for attaining bigger quality milestones. It was quite apparent here that the bug of quality care has certainly bitten the Indian healthcare. It is not for nothing that global benchmark healthcare quality organizations International Society for Quality in healthcare (ISQua) and Asian Society for Quality in Healthcare (ASqua) have started looking up to CAHO for collaboration. Quality Council of India is pinning highest hope on CAHO for inculcating quality craving in India hospitals all and sundry. JCI (Joint Commission International}, the world’s topmost hospital accreditation agency, is mighty impressed by CAHO’s strides and is working hand in hand with it.
The promise of paradise for patients in Indian hospitals by CAHO may still seem a mere leap of faith but CAHOCON at Calcutta bore witness to the fact that enlightened evangelists like Dr Vijay Agarwal, Dr Lallu Joseph, Dr Gyani et al have brought CAHO to a pass where quality of care has firmed up as an overriding aspect of care communication conduit. The culture of quality treatment is slowly but surely set on the path of catching up with best in the world. The credentials of CAHO on display in Calcutta underlined it beyond doubt that CAHO has quite rightly made a reputation of being harbinger of quality of care must mindset leading to patient safety. It can well be said that CAHO has been able to make Indian healthcare fully woke to the need of high quality of care.
Dr Vijay Aggarwal is inseparably bound up with the aim of taking CAHO to stars. Dr Agarwal says, ‘CAHO has certainly started transforming the thinking in healthcare landscape of India. The number of healthcare organizations achieving NABH, NABL and JCI accreditation is forever growing in India which amply underlines CAHO’s seminal work. Patient safety and quality of treatment revolution has started. There is no going back. They say initiating conversation is half done. I accept that this will not happen magically. It might take a very long time to optimize healthcare to a point where safety of patient becomes a norm. For now patient safety has become a buzzword across healthcare. We have started setting standards. There was a time when we looked towards USA for quality movement but not anymore. CAHO has changed that. In fact, the whole world is looking towards CAHO for quality standards. CAHO has brought together people who are passionate about ensuring safe and equitable care for all. It is platform to gain practical tools to improve patient safety in a particular setting.
Dr Aggarwal further said, ‘We have been encouraging patients as partners in healthcare. CAHO wants patient to embrace the motto- My health is my responsibility. We want that Patients should demand quality. CAHO is pressing upon patients that they should demand quality in care from government and private HCOs. CAHO is unique in the sense it is inculcating culture of quality in healthcare. The scenario in India is changing. First change is that the need for accreditation has been accepted by all and sundry. But CAHO carries the conviction that accreditation is not end of quality journey but the beginning of quality journey. This thinking will certainly lead to culture of care quality. CAHO has been reaching out to all stakeholders in healthcare to prime them on this motto.’
Dr Agarwal sums up saying, ‘There was need to move the needle to make a difference in Indian healthcare. You do not accomplish big things overnight. You move the needle every day. We are literally doing it every day. CAHOCON is not one off event a year like other professional healthcare bodies. We are constantly in the work and on the go. We are a cut above the rest.’
