Carving A New Path

Asian Heart Institute inks a deal with Parkway Group Healthcare PTE Ltd to expand its existing operations management and build a new hospital

Rita Dutta - Mumbai

In Sync: Joshua M Goh and Dr Ramakant Panda

After completion of three years, the 140-bed Asian Heart Institute (AHI) has rolled out new plans of business development. It has recently inked a deal with Singapore-based Gleneagles Management Service of Parkway Group Healthcare PTE Ltd to hand over its operations management. This implies that the current CEO of AHI, Dr Ramankant Panda, who was at the helm of day-to-day administration, hands over the reins to Gleneagles.

Now, at the zenith of day-to-day administration will be a Chief Operating Officer (COO) and a management consultant of Gleneagles. While the COO has been appointed but is yet to join, Joshua M Goh, Vice President, International Operations, Parkway Group, will act as a management consultant. Henceforth, Dr Panda will be involved only in policy decision making and will be spared of the “intense day-to-day management attention needed on the ground”, a practice that he diligently followed for the last three years. Says Dr Panda, “By delegating work, I will be able to concentrate on doing more bypass surgeries.” Dr Panda, who does seven to eight surgeries per day, wants to scale up the number of surgeries.

The management feels that the administrative take-over by Gleneagles will push the profit margin of AHI further as the number of angioplasties and surgeries is expected to surge. Reportedly, the hospital has a weekly turnover of nearly Rs two crore. “Our target is to do 2000 surgeries and scale up angioplasties by 30 to 40 per cent,” says Dr Panda. As of now, the hospitals is doing around 1500 surgeries per year. From April to November,2005 the hospital conducted 1419 angiograms and 375 angioplastie. Reportedly, AHI does the highest cardiology work in Mumbai, which constitutes around one-third volume in Mumbai. The hospital has three surgeons, 17 interventional cardiologists and preventive cardiologists.

The change-over would imply no administrative staff re-shuffling, reveals Joshua, adding, “We want to make the change-over as smooth-sailing as possible.” Gleneagles has, however, strengthened the guidelines for “Clinical Governance Structure” for doctors, which outlines patient care, quality assurance and infection control, CMEs, among other things. The management agreement is on a fee-for-service basis.

The Parkway Group Healthcare PTE Ltd holds 70 per cent of Singapore’s private healthcare market with its chain of Mt Elizabeth Hospital, East Shore Hospital and Gleneagles Hospital, which are prime ‘medical tourist’ destinations in the Far East. The group also runs 325-bed Apollo Gleneagles Hospital in Kolkata through a Joint Venture (JV) with Apollo Group.

Besides operations management, AHI and Gleneagles have also entered a JV to build an over 200-bed hospital at Bandra Kurla Complex, in the vicinity of AHI. The new project, for which the details are yet to be worked out, will be on equity-sharing basis. The new hospital would start functioning from the premises of AHI within this year. Around 100 beds have been designated for the new project in AHI building.

“The new hospital would have two or three additional super-specialties,” is all that Joshua is willing to reveal. The buzz is that the two specialities will be orthopaedics and oncology. Gleneagles may also bring its successful liver transplant programme to AHI, say our sources.

Speculations have been rife that AHI is planning to build a multi-specialty hospital, as its initial plan of 250- bed cardiac hospital was not feasible with the burgeoning of cardiac hospitals across the country. Sources also said that a dip in Average Length of Stay of patients in cardiac hospitals after recent advanced treatment in cardiac care, does not create the need to increase the number of beds for cardiac care. Hence, AHI is planning for multi-specialty hospital.

Refuting speculations, Dr Panda says, “We never said that we were going to make a 250-bed cardiac hospital in the very beginning. We always wanted to build a 250-bed hospital over a period of ten years.” He insists that the group is still on track for a 250-bed cardiac hospital, but they are not keen to rush into expanding commercially, ahead of developing the professionally-driven patient-focused team, which takes time and is the hallmark of AHI. The hospital, which started with 90 beds, has added an additional 50 beds over the last three years. However, he emphasised that the group is immediately embarking for other specialties as there are immediate market opportunities existing for these other specialties.

Clarifying further, he says, “Initially, we wanted to build two towers for two hospitals, but the position of the land did not allow us to do so. I also did not want to do civil work, while the hospital is functioning. So, we had to plan for a 250-bed hospital at the outset. However, only the skeletal structure of a 250-bed building was completed; the interiors for a couple of floors were not done.”

About reduction in Average Length of Stay of patients in AHI, Dr Panda says, “Yes, that has of course plunged, but the increase in number of patients in ICU keeps our beds full. Our occupancy is always more than 90 per cent.” What made the two groups click? “We just don’t want to accept any project. We are, however, very excited to work with AHI as our value-system and professional standards are similar. We are completely in sync with AHI’s insistence on quality care, strict infection control and extremely low mortality rate which is among the best in international standards,” explains Joshua. The synergy between the group lies in their similar business model. “In both the groups, doctors hold equity share and are considered major stake-holders,” says Dr Panda.

rita@expresshealthcaremgmt.com