Government-run Niloufer Hospital in Hyderabad has secured the LaQshya certification, an accolade in labour-room quality improvement initiated by the National Health Mission (NHM) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
On November 13, the hospital’s labour room and maternity operation theatre (OT) received the ‘quality certified’ tag under the LaQshya programme. The NHM assessment reflected excellent scores, with the labour room achieving 98.5% and the maternity OT scoring 97.1%.
The hospital administration highlighted that the certification entailed evaluating eight critical areas — Service Provision, Patient Rights, Inputs, Support Services, Clinical Services, Infection Control, Quality Management and Outcome. They credited the achievement to a six-month preparation led by hospital superintendent Dr. T. Usha Rani and resident medical officer Dr. Majeed Mohammed.
LaQshya, designed to reduce maternal and new-born mortality and morbidity related to delivery complications, encompasses a comprehensive strategy, which covers enhancing infrastructure, ensuring the availability of essential equipment, providing adequate human resources, building the capacity of healthcare workers and enhancing quality processes in the labour room.
In the labour room assessment, the hospital achieved 100% in six areas, 94.44% in inputs and 98.37% in clinical services. In the maternity OT assessment, the hospital secured 100% in four areas, 97.41% in inputs , 95.71% in support services, 95.24% in infection control and 91.07% in quality management.
The certification mandates the health facility to work on recommended areas for enhancement and submit an action plan to the State Quality Assurance Unit, which is tasked with verifying improvements through surveillance audits and reporting the status to the certification unit of the National Health Systems Procedure Centre (NHSRC).
