NABH 6th Edition: what actually changed for your quality team
The chapter structure survived. The expectations around digital records, indicator evidence and patient safety did not.
The 6th Edition kept the familiar ten-chapter frame, so a hospital already running a 5th Edition system is not starting over. What changed is the depth of evidence expected, especially around digital health adoption and the information management chapter.
Where teams get caught
Most gaps at assessment are not clinical. They are evidence gaps: a committee that met but has no minutes, an indicator filed for nine months out of twelve, an SOP whose review date passed eighteen months ago. Those are tracking failures, not care failures.
Start with a gap assessment
Score every objective element honestly before you fix anything. A blunt first score tells you where the real work is, and gives you a baseline to show improvement against at the next management review.