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‘Improving the quality of service is our strategy for profitability’

Dr Phani Dhar, with 37 odd years of experience in the medical world and who has adorned prestigious positions including director general, Health, Ministry of Railways has now taken charge at Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute (PSRI) for liver, renal & digestive diseases set up in 1996. Dr Dhar also has a high level of international exposure to his credit starting from his fellowship at the Harvard University, USA, and holding responsible positions at reputed institutions and hospitals in the US and England. He was also a part of the National Health Policy 2001 committee. Now at the helm of the super speciality hospital which is one of its kind in South East Asia, Dr Dhar is chalking out an action plan to carve a niche for PSRI in the Asian Region. Dr Dhar in an Interview with Jayashree Padmini. Excerpts:

After taking charge as the medical director at PSRI, what have you identified as immediate priorities?
My immediate priority will be to streamline the existing functions. The focus would be to make our team more cohesive where we will put together all individual capabilities. My approach is to boost the motivation levels by internal interactions to work at innovative ideas and tackle problems.

What is your strategy to drive the institution towards achieving profitability?
I believe that our focus should be on giving the utmost quality service that itself will be the underlying factor deciding profitability. Therefore, our emphasis is on improving the quality of service.

How do you plan to achieve this in the long term?
I am looking at a two pronged strategy to drive the organisation to growth by increasing volume and at the same time boosting quality of service. From a 50-bed hospital at present, I am looking at making it a 100-bed hospital in a couple of years supplemented with modern equipment. In one of our specialties, the digestive system diseases, we plan to add many more sophisticated facilities. One of these would be therapeutic endoscopy. Another possibility we are

evaluating is combining endoscopy and sonography. We are planning to bring in endo-sonography here. Our main objective is to upgrade our existing equipment.

In the area of kidney diseases, we are looking at further improving the quality of dialysis. In fact in this area we are handling the highest volume in the city at present. Adding some accessories will further improve the functioning, like dialysis in a sitting position. We have already done many kidney transplants successfully, that too at comparatively affordable rates.

For all the expansion plans our major constraint is limited resources. Therefore, we are thinking of going about these in a different way. One method is directly outsourcing the services of high cost equipment.

Another way is to invite a third party to install high cost equipment at PSRI premises on a lease-basis, where we can demand for first preference to our cases either at no cost or for a minimum fee. They can even take up other cases. To think about in-house facilities we have to wait until we develop enough volumes.

How much funds does PSRI earmarks annually for expansion and technological upgradation. What are the new plans in the pipeline?
Since PSRI is a trust-based hospital, flow of funds is indirect in PSRI and the investment depends on these funds, we have designed our expansion plans in such a way that we would be spending about Rs 40-50 crore in a five year period. Though it is subject to availability of funds.

Where do you visualise PSRI in the next five years? What will be PSRI’s role in the healthcare segment?
PSRI being an unique institution in the country, focusing entirely on gastrointestinal, liver and kidney disorders, is looking at offering multifaceted services to the society. We see ourselves as an institution that provides world class healthcare, professional guidance and training to doctors and contribute to community healthcare and thus fulfilling our social obligation too. We are already conducting intensive training programmes for doctors and are seeking the approval of the National Board of Examinations for the same. Our focus would be on South East Asian region and we intend to incorporate modern revolutionary trends including telemedicine once the infrastructure is established.

Any other plans?
Once the present resources are streamlined, we propose to start a nutrition clinic here. Nutrition and digestion are very closely related. The separate section will handle all nutrition-related problems including malnutrition, besity, etc.