What is NABH? Hospital accreditation in India, explained

What it means

NABH stands for the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers. It is a constituent board of the Quality Council of India (QCI), which was established by the Government of India together with industry bodies. NABH describes itself as India’s apex authority for healthcare quality and patient safety standards. It was established in 2005, and it is a member of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), which has accredited its hospital standards.

NABH runs more than 30 accreditation, certification and empanelment programs. The flagship Hospitals Accreditation Programme is meant for hospitals with more than 50 beds, and NABH’s hospital standards are now in their 6th edition (January 2025). Smaller facilities can apply for small healthcare organization (SHCO) accreditation or entry-level certification. For a hospital, accreditation covers the whole institution: NABH asks for its standards to be applied across all departments, not selectively.

How accreditation works

NABH’s published process for hospitals runs roughly like this:

1. Implement the standards. The hospital studies the standards and implements them internally for at least three months.
2. Apply. It submits an online application with documents and fees.
3. Assessment. NABH reviews the documents, then trained assessors visit for an onsite assessment.
4. Decision. Once any non-conformities are closed, accreditation is granted.
5. Keep it. Accreditation is maintained through a surveillance assessment and periodic renewal.

NABH also notes that its accreditation is increasingly accepted as a quality requirement for empanelment under government health schemes and by insurers.

What NABH means for dietary and food services

NABH describes its standards as covering every key area of healthcare delivery, from patient rights and care processes to infection control, documentation and internal audits. Food and nutrition sit across several of these. NABH’s standards for small healthcare organizations, for example, expect that:

• admitted patients are screened for nutritional risk, and those at risk are assessed;
• the therapeutic diet is planned and provided collaboratively;
• patients and families are educated about diet, nutrition and food-drug interactions;
• the kitchen follows sanitation and food-handling practices as part of infection control.

In practice, a hospital needs to show that a diet order written by a doctor or dietitian reliably becomes the meal the patient receives, and that the diet kitchen is safe. That usually comes down to records: diet orders and changes, what was served to whom and when, kitchen hygiene checks and food handler training. Always check the current edition of the standards and NABH’s guidebook for the exact requirements that apply to your hospital.

Common problems

• Diet orders kept on slips and registers that are hard to reconcile with what was actually served.
• Diet changes phoned to the kitchen, with no record of when they were made or acted on.
• No proof of delivery: nobody can show which tray reached which bed, and when.
• Evidence scattered across wards, the kitchen and billing when the assessors arrive.

How MedMeals handles it

MedMeals supports NABH documentation for food and nutrition services. It does not accredit anyone; it keeps the evidence complete and in one place. Every diet order and change is logged on the patient’s record, every meal order carries a live status from placement to delivery and tray clearance, with OTPs at the bedside, and role-based access comes with full audit logs. Diet compliance reports and exportable audit logs are ready for NABH and internal audits. See NABH dietary compliance or book a demo.