Tamil Nadu Government Approves Unified Framework to Improve Patient Safety and Experience
The Tamil Nadu government has approved a comprehensive governance framework aimed at ensuring patient safety and enhancing patient experience across all state-run health facilities.
Over the past decade, the state has implemented several quality improvement initiatives, including National Quality Assurance Standards, the Labour Room Quality Improvement Initiative, Kayakalp, Infection Prevention and Control Programme, Biomedical Waste Management, and a Patient Rights Charter. However, these efforts have been managed through separate programme-specific committees, leading to fragmented oversight and limited coordination among departments, according to a government order.
The new framework is designed to address these gaps by integrating all existing quality initiatives into a single institutional mechanism. It aligns with recommendations from national and global bodies such as the National Quality Assurance Standards, the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers, and the World Health Organisation. Notably, the WHO Global Patient Safety Action Plan (2021-2030) emphasises strong governance and integration of patient safety into all levels of healthcare management, supported by digital technologies.
The governance structure is built on six thematic pillars: Navigation and Accessibility, Environmental Hygiene, Environmental Support Services, Patient Safety and Infection Prevention, Patient and Attender Experience, and Monitoring, Data Analytics and Quality Improvement.
To oversee implementation, the government has constituted a State Apex Committee for Patient Safety and Patient Experience, along with committees at district and hospital levels. State Technical Committees will focus on each of the six pillars under the apex committee. At the facility level, pillar committees will function at medical college hospitals, district headquarters hospitals, and sub-district or peripheral hospitals. Additionally, Patient Advisory Panels will be established in institutions under the Directorate of Medical Education and Research and the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services to oversee patient safety and experience.
The State Apex Committee will be chaired by the Health Secretary, with the Mission Director of the National Health Mission (NHM) as member secretary. The committee will include 20 members, including a patient representative or NGO representative. District-level committees will be chaired by the respective Collector.
A dedicated Programme Management Unit under NHM will coordinate monitoring and provide technical support across the state. An integrated digital platform will be developed in coordination with the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation. This platform is expected to include QR code-based patient feedback, AI-assisted multilingual voice feedback, geo-tagged service-specific feedback, AI-supported sentiment analysis, dashboard-based performance monitoring, automated alert systems, corrective action tracking, facility ranking and benchmarking, and integration with existing quality programmes such as NQAS and Kayakalp.
