'Health Insurance Is an Area Where PPP Can Be Synergised'

EHM News Bureau - Mumbai

Accreditation ensures transparency. Today, transparency is lacking which is affecting provider-payer relationship. Accreditation ensures that the provider-payer relationship is transparent. Accreditation will create a process oriented healthcare environment and is important for creating efficiency, said Vishal Bali, Vice-President of Wockhardt Hospitals Group. Bali was speaking at 'Healthcare Management Conference' organised by Marcus Evans last month in the city.

Speaking about Wockhardt's experience in getting Joint Commission International Accreditation (JCI), in a session titled 'Futuretense-Managing the Service Paradigm', Bali said, "We managed to secure JCI accreditation in just 16 months. Only 71 hospitals in the world have JCI accreditation. It's important to realise that all hospitals do not need JCI accreditation, which is also expensive for an average institution. Hospitals should first seek national accreditation. Therefore, we need to create a national accreditation system and Quality Council of India (QCI) is working towards it. Since we are looking at a global world, hospitals should later prepare for global accreditation," added Bali.

"Accreditation is a tangible milestone not the end of the journey. Accreditation to my mind derives its strength from credibility, which comes from content. Content is linked to competence that in turn is connected to the ability to give quality," said Dr Akhil K Sangal, CEO, Indian Confederation for Healthcare Accreditation, (ICHA), a registered not-for-profit organisation involved in creating an accreditation system for hospitals and healthcare organisations. Dr Sangal was speaking on 'Accreditation system for your hospital and its impact.' He said that even the best hospital in the west takes two to three years to get accredited and most of the time is taken to get people on board.

Speaking on 'Challenges and Opportunities in healthcare in the 21st century', Dr Atul D Garud, Director for Health Quality at PD Hinduja Hospital said, "98,000 deaths occur due to medical errors and the tragic part is that these errors are preventable. Patient-centred care, accreditation, periodic re-validation, practising evidence based medicine and regular clinical audits for appraising our own performance in delivery of healthcare is the best way to ensure patient safety and better outcomes."

A session titled 'Integrating strategic talent management to optimise your workforce' had Gunita Hazuria, Director, Fortis Healthcare Ltd as the speaker. Dr Sandeep Shah, Director, Tarilian Consulting spoke on 'Advanced technology and the future impact on hospital operation'. He opined that Nanotechnology is the next buzzword and will change the face of medicine.

While speaking on a topic titled 'The new mantras for securing the future', Brigadier Joe Curian, CEO, SL Raheja Hospital briefed the delegates on the different kinds of risks involved in a project. He said, "Though a project can be completed in a year, operations take more time. Long start-up curve is a pitfall and so it is advisable to partner with anchor doctors to drive the business. You should ensure that your project cost is reasonable and should be phased out depending on your business volume."

He said that the ideal ratio of cost of manpower to revenue is around 20 per cent. In government hospitals, the ratio of cost of manpower to revenue is 70 per cent and therefore government hospitals do not make profit. Some of the other sessions of the two-day conference were 'Partnership in quality through the infection control programme' by Dr Ling Moi Lin, Director Quality Management and Infection Control Officer, Singapore General Hospital; 'Formulating marketing and branding strategy to gain advantage over competitors' by Dr Mohd Naseem Siddiq, Former Senior Manager-Medical Services, Bhatia Hospital; 'Reaffirming reputation by modelling your hospital to be service oriented' by R Basil, CEO, Manipal Hospitals and Manipal Health Systems; 'Telemedicine as a tool to bridge geographical distance' by Dr Rekha Batura, Assistant Medical Superintendant at Tata Memorial Hospital, and 'The emergence of health insurance in India and what it means to you' by Deepak Mendiratta, Chief of health plan and health insurance at Max Healthcare Institute Ltd.

The second day of the conference had a brain storming session on 'Establishing public-private partnership (PPP). The panellists were Dr Seema Malik, Chief Medical Superintendent of Bhabha Hospital, Dr NA Kshirsagar, Dean of Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Dr Sanjay Oak, Dean of Nair Hospital, Pramod H Lele, Chief Executive Officer of PD Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre. The session was moderated by Vishal Bali.

Dr Sanjay Oak said, "The country needs more cancer beds rather than cardiac beds and a PPP towards creating cancer control programme can be looked at. Similarly a national blindness control programme, a TB control programme, addressing national iodine deficiency disorders are areas where PPP can play a great role."

Dr NA Kshirsagar emphasised on creating the right mindset for PPP to succeed. She said, "In a PPP project, the private sector is more concerned to get ROI to cost and what it will gain. We need to have the right mindsets. Medical insurance is an area where PPP can be synergised. Schemes like Yeshasvini, run in Karnataka allows a person to avail free treatment incase of heart attack. This scheme can be replicated in cities and in PHCs of rural areas. We can also have a good partnership in various research areas."

Dr Seema Malik said, "The contract of any PPP project should not have loopholes." She agreed with Dr Kshirsagar that the private sector wants immediate ROI and a change of mindset is required for any PPP initiative to succeed.

Pramod Lele said, "Sir JJ Hospital, KEM Hospital and PD Hinduja Hospital have together set up the Infectious Diseases Society of India, a good example of PPP. At macro-level, a PPP is required to run primary health centres though the task to run PHCs together will be gigantic. Another area that needs to be addressed is trauma. We need to evolve a symbiotic relationship in PPP."

The session was concluded by Bali who said, "Health is a state subject and this makes matters very complicated. Health should be given the status to facilitate PPP."