Recognizing the need for cross-country collaborations in the current pandemic scenario to build a future-ready healthcare ecosystem, apex healthcare body, NATHEALTH-Healthcare Federation of India today signed an MoU with The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). Under this agreement, both federations will mutually strengthen healthcare systems by developing and providing leadership education and development experiences that will help in preparing healthcare professionals to become clinical leaders and improve patient care. The collaboration will bring in educational opportunities through in-person interactions, such as the Annual Congress on Healthcare Leadership.

The doctor-per-patient ratio and lack of skilled healthcare workers has been a long-standing structural challenge for India. While the pandemic has highlighted the need of strengthening the infrastructure in terms of beds and ICUs, developing a nationwide medical educational programme for medical professionals and healthcare workers is the need of hour. The aim of this strategic partnership is to provide a knowledge sharing platform which will enables different stakeholders to find solutions to the barriers of access to quality healthcare, ways to improve patient outcomes and attain executive positions in healthcare settings and national medical societies. 

This path-breaking MOU between ACHE and NATHEALTH has the following objectives:

• Build and lead effective teams and achieve high levels of inter professional engagement
• Create collaborative, participatory physician, clinical, and executive partnerships built on trust to improve patient care
• Become transformational physicians and clinical leaders to attain executive positions in healthcare settings and national medical societies
• Collaborate on educational opportunities through virtual delivery and as appropriate, in-person interactions, such as the Annual Congress on Healthcare Leadership programmes

Speaking about the MoU Dr. Harsh Mahajan President, NATHEALTH said, “We are pleased to collaborate with ACHE on a very vital area of healthcare education. The second wave of COVID-19 has been an eyeopener for the medical fraternity. As we are preparing ourselves for a possible 3rd wave of the pandemic and its subtle shift to an endemic, a lot of focus is on strengthening our systems to deal with the surge in cases- both for COVID and non-COVID. Challenges that we are currently facing of bed and oxygen shortage, non-availability of essential drugs can be resolved with necessary interventions at central and state level but addressing skilling and manpower crisis amidst these tough times will greatly help providers give better care. We are hopeful that this strategic collaboration between NATHEALTH and ACHE will provide a platform to improve patient care through a unique and much-needed clinical partnership”. 

Adding to this, Deborah Bowen, FACHE, CAE from ACHE said, “On behalf of ACHE we are pleased to collaborate with NATHEALTH on leadership development and Education.  The past year has reinforced the value of collaboration and knowledge sharing across the globe.  The pandemic has shown us how leadership excellence can have a profound impact on patients.  We look forward to our collaboration with NATHEALTH on education and leadership development to promote bidirectional programming sharing best practices that will positively impact healthcare leaders and the patients and communities that they serve.”

The Government has taken steps in the past for healthcare professionals to come together and work towards providing quality healthcare to patients. This MOU between NATHEALTH and ACHE enables this vision to become stronger in shaping up the healthcare education and leadership in the country and improving patient care delivery systems