NABH Digital Health Standards for Hospitals: Silver, Gold and Platinum Explained

The programme in brief

NABH released the 1st Edition, which it called India's first digital health standards for hospitals, on 17 September 2023. The 2nd Edition trimmed the standards to eight chapters (three clinical, five non-clinical) and 182 objective elements, and graded them Core, Commitment, Achievement and Excellence, as in NABH's 5th and 6th Edition hospital standards.

The eight chapters

NABH says the elements apply to every kind of hospital regardless of size, location, ownership or specialty. The certification programme describes the scope as the hospital information system, cybersecurity, telemedicine, patient data privacy and digital consent, aligned with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). One example from the clinical chapters: the hospital captures the patient's ABHA number and links it to its own unique patient identifier.

Silver, Gold and Platinum

A hospital applies for the level its self-assessment supports, and only the elements for that level are evaluated.

Each applicable element is scored 0, 5 or 10, and services the hospital does not provide (a blood centre in a small hospital, for example) are marked not applicable. The hospital gets 90 days after the first assessment, and again after surveillance, to close non-compliances.

Accreditation or certification?

NABH presents certification as the way to "start on the digital maturity roadmap", and encourages hospitals to move to the next level when they renew. Under the 2nd Edition notes, allopathic multispecialty and single-specialty hospitals, day-care allopathic clinics, eye hospitals, dental hospitals and AYUSH hospitals can all apply. A provider that takes accreditation without already holding NABH hospital, SHCO, dental, AYUSH or eye care accreditation must apply for one of those programmes during the third year of its digital accreditation.

NABH fees

Accreditation (four years), in ₹: one-time application fee / annual fee

Certification (two years, Silver): ₹10,000 up to 20 beds; ₹20,000 for 21–100 beds; ₹35,000 for 101–300 beds; ₹50,000 above 300 beds.

Plus 18% GST, as listed on nabh.co. The certification page shows a total including GST against each band while also saying GST is extra, so confirm the payable amount with NABH.

How to prepare

1. Download the free version of the 2nd Edition guidebook and NABH's digital toolkit, and score your hospital honestly against the 17 Core elements first: a single Core gap blocks every level.
2. Decide the realistic level. Most small and mid-sized hospitals should aim for Silver and plan a move to Gold at renewal.
3. Map each element to the module of your hospital software that meets it. If your vendor's product is certified under NABH's separate standards for HIS/EMR or clinic management software, ask for the mapping.
4. Close the policy gaps that software alone cannot: access control, backups, downtime procedures, data privacy and digital consent.
5. Train staff, because assessors check that the system is used, not just installed.

Digital records also make the hospital standards easier: the IMS chapter guide explains what NABH's 6th Edition expects of medical records and information management.