Techno-Med
A Special Feature on Medical Equipment Technology

“We are committed to offering highest quality products”

Anant Shridhar Bhat has been serving the medical equipment industry for more than a decade now. He joined Usha Dragger as the regional manager (west) around nine years back, and since then there has been no looking back for him. Currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer, he has worked hard to take the company to the position it has acquired now.

Usha Dragger had been traditionally a small, transparent and efficient organisation with clear objectives.

During the last five years they have made tremendous progress and achieved a 25 per cent average annual growth. Today they stand as the most comprehensive equipment suppliers for critical care, operating theatres, emergency care and home care solutions.

A strong human resource policy in line with the development needs of individuals and organisational goals has been in place in the company for quite some time now. Considerable time and resources are spent on employees training for management and other professional areas including application and product training.

This has helped the organisation’s employees in achieving better results and higher customer satisfaction. An example of this is the multiple growth of business in last five years, with almost a constant number of employees.

What is the quality of the medical equipment available in the market?

India is traditionally known for not having a greater emphasis on quality compared to the western world.

The health care industry, however, has started taking a professional approach in recent times. Quality has become a prefix to health care at-least in discussions. In practice we are still not too committed even to insure the minimum level of quality.

Can you elaborate?

It is evident also from the fact that neither we have any approval system for new or existing technologies, nor do we stick to internationally acclaimed approvals FDA etc. Although we do have some standards laid down by BIS for Medical Equipment & Systems, in absence of mandatory regulations they are hardly adhered to.

Is the industry doing anything in this regard?

Of late we do see some concerns propping up, mostly due to the perceived requirement for accreditation of hospitals by insurance providers in future and inflow of private capital and interest into the healthcare sector. A major role is being played by leading hospital consultants, in advising their clients regarding the future mandatory requirements.

We are sure that quality consciousness will grow not only in the healthcare service providers but also amongst the consumers. Slowly but surely consumer will get in the habit of looking critically at the quality of services offered by the hospitals and not just the name and reputation of consulting doctor.

This will be a time of consolidation and only the industry players who adhere to high quality standards will remain in competition. This will be the best thing to happen in the interest of availability of high quality health care facilities at reasonable price.

What is Usha Dragger’s commitment in this area?

We are committed to offering highest quality product and services including our clinical support for optimal infection control and device usability in Critical Care Areas and Operating Theatres.

This has already given us a special place in the eyes of our esteemed customers. We have been offering complete range of products in our know how areas and these ranges from simple basic devices to sophisticated high performance systems. We never compromise on standards of quality, and even our basic equipment comply with international standards of safety in use and are produced in accordance with good manufacturing practices.

Can you tell us about UDL’s market?

The company received ISO 9000 certification in year 1998, and since than they are actively catering to not just Indian but also overseas market in neighbouring countries and south east Asia.

With a commitment for quality they upgraded their system to ISO 9001: 2000 in March 2002, and this was quite early not only in the industry and within Dragger worldwide subsidiaries.

The company has been highly successful with its after sales services too, the best example for this was in Gujarat where we supplied approximately 800 devices to hospitals all over the state under ORET project and have been maintaining a 95 per cent uptime guarantee for more than two years now.

By working closely with customers and based on their inputs and market needs, UDL has constantly been refining its approach and making improvements.

Continued ...