A few hospitals have fire safety stamp

CHENNAI: The Kolkata hospital inferno, that snuffed out close to 100 lives, has brought the focus on the preparedness of Chennai hospitals in the event of a fire emergency.Though experts rue that most of the hospitals in Chennai city hardly follow fire safety norms, a few corporate hospitals have gone the extra mile by obtaining accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Health Care providers (NABH).Dr Usha Raghavan Subramaniyan, Deputy  Medical Superindent and NABH Coordinator at Frontier Lifeline Hospital, says, “NABH accreditation speaks of the quality of healthcare the patients can expect from the institution. Frontier Lifeline Hospital had received NABH accreditation on June 2009. Usha says, “We have two annual fire safety drills. Whenever a new employee is hired, during induction, they are taught about Code Red emergency process and are  trained how to respond in the event of a fire. We also have an in-house ‘Crisis Response Team’, which, on a continuous basis, keeps training the staff.”Mehta Group of Hospitals, which received the NABH accreditation in March 2011, have their staff geared up for Code Red operations.“All our Employee ID cards have  information about Code Red and other  emergency codes,” says Major Ganesh Kale, Chief Operating Officer, Mehta Group of Hospitals.However, the Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, tops the safety slot. It is the second hospital in India and the only hospital in TN to have the Joint Commission International Accreditation & Certification.S Bhaskaran, Deputy GM, Safety & Environment, Apollo Group of Hospitals, says, “Apollo Group of Hospitals is fully equipped both technologically and manually to handle fires. We believe in mitigation and our systems are tuned in to take care of that. Every month, we have fire safety drills. When our smoke sensors pick up signals, immediately the fire suppressants get our automated systems to shut down the  compartments of the building so that smoke doesn’t billow out, while our rescue team gets to work.”He adds with confidence, “Right from the house-keeping staff to the top specialist, everyone is trained in fire emergency response. We can evacuate a minimum of 24 ICU patients in a span of 10 minutes.”Talking about the importance of NABH Accreditation, Dr Usha says, “Following quality standards is like climbing a ladder. The higher you climb, the better will be the view. This is a continuous process.