Event

A Congregation of the Learned

Top honchos of the medico-legal field, panel discussions and informative presentations, the IX th National Seminar on Hospital/Healthcare & Medico-legal Systems by SCHC had it all.

Doctors alone cannot run the healthcare set-up, unless it is a small clinic. When you project yourself as a quality provider, people presume quality is associated with the usefulness at the hospital/healthcare set-up," said Dr V Ranjan, Faculty at SCHC, while speaking on ‘Quality Management and Managed Care’. He was speaking at The Seminar held by the Symbiosis Centre of Health Care (SCHC), Pune at the Symbiosis Vishwabhavan from 10-13 May. Express Healthcare was the official media partner for the Seminar.

Top honchos of the medico-legal field, informative panel discussions and presentations, poster and paper presentations by students of SCHC, the IX th National Seminar on Hospital/Healthcare & Medico-legal Systems had it all! It was a knowledge treat for all those who participated and for those who were there to speak, definitely got rapt attention from the audience. The crux of the conference was to deliberate on the topics of healthcare management and medico-legal systems.

The Seminar opened with three parallel pre-conference symposia on hospital accreditation, clinical research and health insurance. The pre-conference symposium on accreditation was hosted in association with the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH), Quality Council of India (QCI) with the aim to create awareness and educate healthcare providers about the accreditation process.

Said Prof Shirish Bagewadi, Faculty, SCHC on Marketing and Finance Management in Healthcare, “Customers now see what value for money they can get, and also doctors want to earn and be known well. Perception is reality for the patients and they cannot actually make out who is a better doctor. It all depends on the credibility of the doctor in the market.” He also stressed that doctors must know in advance whether they want to be a 'mass doctor' or a 'class doctor'. In all aspects of life, we market ourselves, like we market ourselves when we want to marry too, so why not market a hospital and a doctor?

This was followed by an interesting session of Advocate MS Pandit, whose topic was Consumer Protection Act (CPA) and Medical Negligence. Pointing out the loopholes in the Section 2 (1) (0) which describes 'service' as any kind of service and includes lawyers and doctors alike, he opined, “When the Medical Council of India (MCI) monitors the healthcare sector, why give the powers in the hands of CPA too?”

Ram Jethmalani, Former Union Law Minister	Dr BM Hegde, Ex Vice Chancellor, MAHE
Shivinder Mohan Singh, CEO & MD, Fortis Health and Escorts Heart	Padmashree Dr SB Majumdar, President and Principal Director, Symbiosis

Day 2

The second day kick-started with a presentation on Global Health Threats and International Health Security by Dr Yeneabat Ayana, Epidemiologist with WHO. He also mentioned about the steps WHO is taking to tackle such issues and how India can contribute to the same. This was followed by a session on 'Hospital Design: Healthy Buildings for Better Health' by Dr Vivek Desai, Managing Director of HOSMAC. “John Weeks was the first architect to grasp the idea of the need of flexibility in hospital designing,” he informed. He stressed on the idea of planning the building for energy efficiency, and the importance of healthy designing for accreditation and medical tourism. He pointed out that generator back up of 100 per cent is not required. “For a hospital like Hinduja Hospital, the cost involved is around Rs 2 crore with a recurrent cost of one-two lakh per day!,” he elaborated.

This informative presentation was followed by the thought-provoking topic of 'Why Patients Sue' by Dr Parvez Ahmed, Executive Director, Medical Operations, Max Healthcare. He cited various reasons for patient dissatisfaction, ranging from lack of application of the latest technology, to the increased cost of healthcare. “Most often, patients sue not because of negligence but because of some unmet dissatisfied needs. Also, poor communication between doctor-patient is a major reason for such cases,” he added. He also mentioned preventable steps for avoiding getting sued by a patient.

Dr Rajiv Yeravdekar, Director, SIHS spoke on the difference between medical negligence and deficiency in service, which come under two different laws, Law of Torts and CPA, respectively. “Not all that the doctor does wrong, amounts to medical negligence,” he stated. He raised concern about the way consumer courts handle medico-legal cases without even involving a medical expert many a times.

This was followed by a panel discussion on 'Media and Health Care Systems' involving Anupam Verma, CEO, Khar Hospital Project, Hinduja Healthcare Ltd; Dr Sanjay Gupte, General Secretary, ICOG; Dr BM Hegde, Ex Vice Chancellor, MAHE; Dr Rajiv Yeravdekar; Ujwall Chowdhurry, Director, SIMC, and Subroto Roy from the Times of India Newspapers. The discussion pointed out the positive and negative points of media and the effects media has on the image of the healthcare institution. The panel discussed how the media should be involved with healthcare by having courses for reporters who are not regular health reporters.

(From L to R) (1) Venue, (2) Dr Parvez Ahmed, Executive Director, Medical Operations, Max Healthcare; (3) Dr Rajiv Yeravdekar, Director, SIHS; Saibal Mukherjee; Shivinder Mohan Singh; Rajlakshmi Bhosale; Dr Rajasekeran; and Dr K H Sancheti at the inauguration ceremony

Day 3

The third day saw the panel discussion on 'Conventional Management VS Management in Healthcare', which included Dr Vivek Sane, Management Consultant; Vivek Shukla, Healthcare Marketing & Branding Consultant; Narendra Karkera, Financial Consultant and Dr Rajeev Bhoudhankar, Director Of Fortis Hospital at Navi Mumbai. How conventional management would have dealt with the current challenges in healthcare management was the main topic for discussion. Shukla laid stress on brand building, Karkera, a finance expert with 34 years of experience urged the administrators to learn more about hospital finance, while Dr Bhoudhankar stressed on the need for multi-tasking for hospital managers.

Then the official inaugural ceremony of the event was held, which saw its chief guest as Lt Gen Sibal Mukherjee, AVSM, DGMS (Army), guest of honour was Shivinder Mohan Singh, CEO & MD, Fortis Health and Escorts Heart, and the ceremony was presided over by Advocate Ram Jethmalani, Former Union Law Minister. Also present was Dr SB Majumdar, President and Principal Director, Symbiosis.

This ceremony was followed by a panel discussion on 'Ethics, Law and Medical Practice: The Eternal Dilemma' involving Advocate Ram Jethmalani; Dr Vasantha Muthuswamy, DDG, ICMR; Dr BM Hegde; and Dr MA Tutakane, Former VC, SIU. They all pondered over the medical ethics which are over thousand-year-old and how they do not apply in today's world. The panel put forward the principle of 'do no harm', which the doctors are supposed to follow. This means, if the doctor cannot do the patient any good, at least he must not do any harm. The panel also discussed how there has been a drastic change in the approach by the doctors towards their patients.

Day 4

(L) Daljit Singh, President, Fortis Healthcare and Dr Vivek Desai, MD, Hosmac India Pvt Ltd

While speaking on 'QCI's Initiatives in Healthcare' Girdhar Gyani, Secretary General, QCI, pressed upon the need to be on par with international markets and for that, we need to worry about the norms of International Society of Quality in Healthcare (ISQH). “Since the norms of ISQH have come now in India, the country has started to set up standards in healthcare according to this body,. Had these norms come 10 years back, the systems in India would have been perfect till now,” he said. He also expressed concern over lack of accreditation of labs in our country.

This session was soon followed by a presentation on 'Strategy & Execution: Bridging the Gap' by Daljit Singh. “The best strategy is to invest in people, be responsible towards stakeholders and have efficient systems. Now, there is a huge gap between strategy and execution,” he said. He further explained how to bridge this gap by giving instance from his own hospital. “According to a survey, healthcare is the second most corrupt industry in India and this mark should be shed off as soon as possible. For this, hospitals must know where they want to get and then chart out a plan. Also, distinctive patient experiences and elements must be taken care of by the hospital. This is important as many big hospitals in India fare poorly in doctor-patient interaction,” he added.

The Seminar was considered a grand success with 200 delegates attending it from across the country.