Jyoti Rama Das, managing partner of Integra Ventures, at the news conference in Guwahati on Thursday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, Nov. 13: A Guwahati-based healthcare consultancy firm has partnered with the National Accreditation Board of Hospitals to chalk out a road map for hospitals in the Northeast to adhere to standards set by the board and delivery quality healthcare services.

Towards this end, Integra Ventures, the healthcare consultancy firm, is organising a conference on — Quality: A tool to enhance and sustain patient experience — here on Saturday. Representatives of public and private healthcare institutions apart from policy makers, hospital owners, administrators, architects and engineers will attend the conference.

“Our primary goal is to raise awareness about quality service delivery among healthcare professionals in the region and to sensitise them about the standards set by the board,” Jyoti Rama Das, managing partner of Integra Ventures, told reporters here today.

Set up in 2012, Integra Ventures specialises in planning, designing, commissioning and bringing operational efficiency in healthcare organisations. It currently caters to 14 private and government hospitals in four states — Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland.

National Accreditation Board of Hospitals chief executive officer K.K. Kalra will deliver a talk on the importance of quality and accreditation in healthcare.

The conference will also cover aspects such as efficient planning and designing of healthcare facilities, streamlining hospital processes through effective IT implementation, doctor-patient relationship and challenges in the management of small and medium-sized hospitals.

The Northeast still lags behind in terms of availability and provisioning of healthcare services.

Worse still, lack of structural planning in most hospitals here also makes them vulnerable to disasters. In a survey carried out in 54 government and private hospitals in the city by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority over 50 per cent were found to be vulnerable to fire and earthquake.

“As many as 250 hospitals in the country are under the ambit of the National Accreditation Board of Hospitals. However, only one hospital in the city is NABH accredited,” Das said.

“There is a gap in the demand and supply of quality healthcare, which is what this conference seeks to address,” he said.

The firm, which claims to be the only multi-disciplinary healthcare consultant in the region, plans to reach out to Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur as well.

“The disciplines covered by us include quality and accreditation services, management consultancy, hospital design services, bio-medical equipment consultancy, manpower planning and training, IT consultancy and public health consultancy,” Das said.