Hyderabad, April 15, 2023: The 7th International Conference of Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisations (CAHOCON)-2023 begins at HICC in Hyderabad on Saturday. The two-day conference is the first to be held in the city of Hyderabad. The city with the best of the best healthcare facilities attracted a record number of participants. More than 1500 are participating not just from across India but from over 15 countries. Representatives of two international accreditation bodies are also participating. It is so far the highest-ever delegates registered conference in its history.

It is organised by CAHO (Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisations), a not-for-profit body that aims to enable quality and patient safety initiatives in India. CAHO is represented by healthcare institutions, diagnostic centres and quality professionals with an overarching aim to promote patient safety through fire safety training for hospital staff, quality through communication skills for the healthcare professional and accreditation in the healthcare ecosystem. CAHOCON is a platform to accelerate the process of excellence in healthcare

Dr Ravi P.Singh, Secretary General, Quality Council of India(QCI), an autonomous body, set up jointly by the Government of India and the Indian Industry represented by the three premier industry associations such as ASSOCHAM, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) was the guest of honour and inaugurated.

Speaking on the occasion he said in order to encourage and promote quality, QCI will rate and rank 1000 NABL Accredited Hospitals in India. This work may begin in July this year. The few top-ranked hospitals will be accorded status centres of excellence, he said.

Speaking further Mr Singh said post covid it has become extremely important for healthcare providers to take responsibility for patient care and safety. We must continue our collective efforts towards making India a global leader and a symbol of excellence in healthcare. To achieve this goal we have to prioritise patient care and safety as a hallmark of our quality. At NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers) we are committed to adhering to and promoting quality standards in healthcare.

Healthcare is a priority both for states and the central government. The Aarogyasri Scheme in the state of Telangana is a unique Government-sponsored Community Health initiative that reflects the government’s priority.

The Medical Education System is doing well, but allied fields need to build capacity to make it robust. Skilling in allied fields is very important, he said.

India’s national accreditation system under the Quality Council of India (QCI) has been ranked 5th in the world in the recent Global Quality Infrastructure Index (GQII) 2021. The GQII ranks the 184 economies in the world on the basis of quality infrastructure (QI).

Dr Vijay Agarwal, President of CAHO (Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisations) in his welcome address said, CAHOCON-2023 is a big source of education and learning in Quality and safety in patient care. The conference is the culmination of the year-long activities. This will infuse energy into healthcare professionals. The conference promotes safety by reducing errors.

Dr B. Bhaskar Rao, Organising Chairman of CAHOCON-2023 speaking about the theme, said leadership is the key to quality. Quality consciousness must be inculcated in a healthcare professional from the days of joining the medical profession. Leadership and quality are interdependent. They are complementary to each other.

Informing the audience about T. Harish Rao, the Health Minister who was supposed to grace, he informed them that he was unable to make it to the conference due to some unavoidable circumstance. The Health minister is dynamic and very committed. Though he is not a medical doctor, he made his mark. He is giving private hospitals tough competition by ensuring good quality services in government hospitals. He stands today as an exemplary leader.

The theme of CAHOCON 2023 is “Leadership is the Key to Quality”. The theme was chosen so to emphasize the importance of leadership in promoting patient safety in the healthcare delivery system and is relevant globally, informed Mr R. Govind Hari, Co-organising Chairman of the conference

Before the inaugural function, a keynote session was held on Leadership-Building Culture of Quality and Safety.

Participating Ms Sangeeta Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals Group said it is not how many hospitals you have built, or how big is your facility that matters, what counts and matters the most is your commitment to patient health care. Speaking further she said if you satisfy one patient, that reaches four new patients. If you disappoint one patient, that reaches 10 potential patients. So put more focus on Quality. Sustain it, maintain it, practice it. Learn from mistakes and modify systems. The tenets of Quality is to plan, improve, train, and sustain.

Dr Guru N. Reddy spoke about the role of distributive leadership to meet the challenges in health care. There are no failures in the world. But, for only those who excuse themselves. He spoke about centralised, decentralised and distributed leadership. He spoke about how Google and OYO embraced Distributed leadership. This leadership enables people to act, establishes the shared vision, and facilitates teamwork, he said. He gave 12 qualities of Google’s Sundar Pichai Qualities

Three hospitals were declared as “Centres for Quality Promotion of CAHO”. They include Pushpagiri Group of Eye Hospital, Secunderabad., Telangana; Fortis, Mohali, Chandigarh and Caritas Hospital, Kottayam, Kerala

Three Books were released by Dr RP Singh. They include: Incident to Action in Hospitals, Handbook on Hand Hygiene and Air Conditioning in Health Care facility. Souvenir-CAHOCON 2023 was launched.