Crisil will grade govt hospitals in 3 states

BANGALORE: The Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL), a premier credit rating agency, has been assigned to grade government-run hospitals in three states.
CRISIL Managing Director R. Ravi Mohan told The Times of India: ``We will sign an ongoing contract with these states soon. In turn, it will help to gauge how much aid each hospital deserves.Funds will be allocated accordingly.'''' He, however, did not disclose the names of the states.
Over the past one year, after assigning healthcare grades to two hospitals in New Delhi and one in Chennai recently, it has assigned `Grade A'' to the Mumbai-based Bombay Hospital and Medical Research Centre (BHMRC), managed by the Bombay Hospital Trust. CRISIL has classified BHMRC as a multi-speciality tertiary care hospital, and its grade indicates very good quality of patient care.
The 440-bed in-patient hospital has facilities, equipment, manpower and service quality levels that are consistent with the highest standards in the Indian healthcare industry. ``Our grading for institutions is an opinion on the relative quality of healthcare delivered by them. A hospital graded higher would have better facilities, superior quality levels and greater consistency in services delivery compared to lower graded ones,'''' he added.
The agency''s hospitals are categorised under nursing homes, general secondary care, speciality secondary care, multi-speciality tertiary care and single-speciality tertiary care.
CRISIL grades hospitals on a four-point scale, A to D, rated as very good quality, good quality, average and poor. Its grading process is a multi-layered decision-making process. A team of analysts is assigned to interact with institutions and discuss mission and policy, regulatory compliance, medical specialities, support services, management evaluation, patients'' rights, nursing care and financial performance.
It has developed healthcare grading methodology based on seven broad parameters, after an in-depth analysis of various grading criteria adopted by international agencies in USA, Australia and Canada and fine-tuned it to Indian standards.