Key Words :
Quality Systems, Standards, SPOs, Quality Initiative.

ABSTRACT
The need for quality system evaluation in hospitals is well established. However lack of basic standards including standard operating procedure (SOPs) for hospitals makes this a difficult job. SOPs have been found to be of immense use in proper working, training of personnel and favourable outcomes. Thus SOPs are an essential pre-requisite for any Quality initiative. With this aim a study was conducted in two hospitals in the NCR of Delhi, with regard to status of knowledge and practice of Standard Operating Procedures was used to suggest guidelines/measures for writing Standard Operating Procedures for hospitals. A pre-tested semi- structured questionnaire was administered to randomly selected sample of physicians and nurses in two hospitals (n = 175). The study has revealed that there is general awareness of the concept of SOPs, but written SOPs are available in very few instances. The study also shows that commonest method of learning how to perform procedures in the workplace is by verbal instructions by seniors, which very often leads to variations. There is a felt need among healthcare workers for SOPs in their workplace, which are drafted by end users by consensus. However, SOPs should be customised to suit existing practises in different healthcare institutions.