Certification Process
How PREP Certification Works
PREP certification follows six clear steps — with one deliberate difference from every other certification you know: the survey is never scheduled. Your organisation’s head(s) are kept informed for logistics, but your staff will not know the date. Surveyors simply arrive, and see your facility exactly as your patients do.
The Six Steps to PREP Certification Excellence
Obtain the standards
Download the PREP Standards Manual from prep.healthcare at a nominal charge and self-assess against every performance criterion.
Apply online
Complete the online application form and pay the application fee.
Application scrutiny
The PREP Secretariat scrutinises your application and supporting documents, and confirms once your application is successfully verified.
Readiness & unannounced survey
When you confirm your facility is ready, the clock starts: trained PREP Surveyors will arrive unannounced at any time within the next 90 days. Leadership is informed only as needed for logistics — staff are not.
Improvement window
If observations are raised, your facility has one month to act on them.
Certification awarded
After successful verification of the observations and your strategic improvement initiatives, certification is awarded — and your facility joins the public PREP directory.
Why unannounced?
Because experience cannot be staged. A scheduled inspection shows a facility at its rehearsed best; an unannounced one shows what patients and relatives actually encounter on an ordinary Tuesday. Knowing that surveyors may walk in at any time keeps a facility genuinely ready — not preparing for a date, but delivering every day. That constant readiness is exactly the culture the standards describe, and it is what makes the PREP mark worth trusting.
What the survey looks at?
PREP surveys use experience-based methods only — no clinical tracers, no clinical record review
Interviews
Interviews with patients and relatives, and validated experience surveys.
Observation
Observation of non-clinical, patient-facing touchpoints and the physical environment — reception, waiting areas, wards (as guests, not auditors of care), food service, visiting, billing, discharge.
Documentation
Review of experience documentation — feedback systems, complaint records, signage and information materials, visiting and support policies.
Staff
Interviews with staff about experience practices (never clinical practice).
How facilities are scored?
Every performance criterion is rated on a three-point scale — Exemplary, Progressing, or Needs Attention. Criteria that do not apply are marked N/A with a documented reason and excluded from the score. PC scores roll up to a standard score, then a domain score, then an overall percentage.
To be certified, a facility needs a minimum overall score of 70% with every Core performance criterion met (68 of the 227 criteria are Core).
Certification levels
PREP surveys use experience-based methods only — no clinical tracers, no clinical record review
Exemplary
85–100%
Experience requirements are fully and consistently delivered across the facility.
Progressing
70–84%
A strong experience foundation, with improvement underway toward consistent excellence.
Not yet certified
Below 70%, or any Core PC unmet
Certification is not awarded until the gaps are addressed and verified.
Validity, yearly renewal & real-time monitoring
PREP certification is renewed every year. Renewal is based on an annual unannounced renewal survey together with the facility’s continuous monitoring record. There is no re-application — the facility pays the annual fee, maintains its standards, and the surveyors arrive when they arrive.
Certification does not end at the award. Every certified facility is monitored in real time:
Live patient & relative feedback
A PREP-managed digital feedback channel (QR-based) operates inside the facility. Patients and relatives share their experience directly with PREP — unfiltered, as it happens.
Public reviews
PREP monitors the facility’s public and social-media reviews as an ongoing signal of the lived experience.
Live public status
Every certified facility is listed in the public PREP directory on prep.healthcare, with its certification status kept current in real time.
Facilities that maintain their standards renew smoothly, year after year. Significant deterioration — found at a survey or signalled by monitoring — leads to a corrective-action requirement or, if unresolved, suspension of the certificate and of the facility's listing.
Fees
The fee structure is simple and accessible: a one-time application fee, and an annual fee that maintains your certification for the year.
Note: International facilities: USD fee schedule available on request from the PREP Secretariat.
| Facility Category | Application Fee (INR) | Annual Fee (INR) |
|---|---|---|
| Clinics & day-care institutions | ₹5,000 | ₹20,000 |
| 1–50 beds | ₹8,000 | ₹30,000 |
| 51–100 beds | ₹15,000 | ₹70,000 |
| 101–300 beds | ₹25,000 | ₹1,25,000 |
| 301 beds and above | ₹50,000 | ₹1,50,000 |
PREP Standards Manual: available at a nominal charge as a digital download from prep.healthcare, with the self-assessment tool.
Surveyor travel and lodging for on-site visits are charged at actuals.
All fees are exclusive of applicable taxes (GST).