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Managing hospitals
IN most of the developed countries, like the United States, England and Canada, hospital management is the most sought-after career after information technology, opines Chief Manager, Corporate Relations of the Noida-based Kailash Hospital and Heart Institute, D. K. Chopra. In a conversation with Nalini Ranjan, he talked about various aspects on hospital management.
With the opening up of the health sector to private entrepreneurs, specialised hospitals offering the best in medicare have mushroomed all over the metropolis and the adjoining areas creating considerable demand for not only qualified doctors but also for equally qualified personnel to take care of the intricate management of these units which have to be run most efficiently. As a result, this has spawned a new breed of management experts in the field of hospital management.
Thirty-seven-year-old D. K. Chopra is perhaps one of the most qualified and experienced persons in the field of Hospital Management. Right now, he is the Chief Manager, Corporate Relations of the Noida-based Kailash Hospital and Heart Institute. Prior to this assignment, he was associated with many prestigious institutions and organisations like Metro Hospital, Dharamshila Cancer Hospital, Glaxo India Ltd and Systopic Laboratories, among others.
He earned great applause and awards for his outstanding performances in this intricate field. He is also recipient of many national and international awards instituted by various coveted organisations in this field.
Mr Chopra has always been a brilliant student. Be it his alma mater Kendriya Vidyalaya, Tagore Garden or Hansraj College, from where he graduated with top marks in chemistry, he was always out standing. For this, he was conferred the prestigious P. L. Soni Award. After his graduation, he did PG Diploma in Marketing and Sales Management, PG Diploma in Public Relations and MBA with specialisation in Hospital Management. He also got the Hindustan Times Award for securing highest marks in Public Relations while at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan.
Excerpts
What is Hospital Management?
In a broad sense, it is the overall management of a hospital, be it external (public like patients and their relatives), or the internal (employees). There should be some sort of co-ordination between them. It is very difficult to satisfy the former and to motivate the latter. It is a very challenging job and our role is that of an interface between them. It is like walking over the sword’s edge. For the success of any hospital, employees including doctors, nurses and ward boys, should be motivated to perform in accordance to the needs of patients and their attendants.
Hospitals hire persons from hospital management sector to do undertake this responsibility. It is 24-hour job, which only a professional qualified in hospital management can perform.
Apart from this, what is the role of a hospital manager, particularly in our country?
They should publicise the overall facilities of their respective hospitals among the target audience through various media. Local or traditional media is very effective in this regard. They should get their hospitals connected with various panel organisations of the private and public sector. They can also tie up with various third party insurance agents like Paramount Health Care Services, Family Health Plan, Raksha, IRDA and Mediclaim.
On behalf of hospitals, they can also introduce various welfare schemes, like general healthcare awareness drives and organising free health check-up camps from time to time in nearby localities. A little bit of help from reputed social service organisations, like Rotary Club and Lions Club can be taken in this regard as they have proven track records in this field and have natural tendency to help others without taking anything in return.
What is the status of this career in developed countries?
In most of the developed countries, like the United States of America, England and Canada, hospital management is most sought-after career after information technology. It can be best understood from one example. Mr Bobby Jindal, who was recently in the news for contesting the election for the post of Governor of Lousiana there. He has a Master’s degree in hospital management. And because of this qualification, he had been appointed the Secretary of Health services some years back. Students now even prefer to do a degree in hospital management rather than go in for the traditional MBBS degree. There are ample opportunities after obtaining this specialised degree in public and private health services. If you are armed with hospital management degree, you will naturally get an edge over the traditional MBBS degree there. Most of the hospitals there regularly organise orientation classes not only for their in-house doctors, but also for the doctors and other professionals of near by areas so that every new development in the healthcare field is brought to the notice of most of the responsible people. Apart from this, they also organise awareness drives regarding existing healthcare facilities for the common people from time to time.
Most of the hospitals in the West take all possible care of the attendants as well. It is hard reality that to the business point of view, attendants can make a big difference rather than patients. If an attendant is not satisfied with the kind of services a hospital provides then he would never bring his wards there for treatment. It is tested fact that in most of the cases, attendants use to select the hospitals for their patients for treatment. So without providing proper care to attendants, no hospital can attain professional success.
Unfortunately, in our country, most of the hospitals, even some so-called elite hospitals hardly provide any care to the attendants. They are not even provided arrangements for staying in the hospital premises. This trend is not good as far as the profession success of a hospital is concerned.
What prompted you to enter this field?
My ultimate aim of joining hospital industry was to serve the ailing humanity who is generally not aware of the fact that the necessary and proper treatment for all types of diseases and ailments are available in some selected private hospitals at affordable charges combined with high degree of patient care.
Not only common people, even very few doctors working in peripheral areas are aware of such treatment facilities being available in some selected private hospitals at nominal charges. As for example, very few people know the fact that Kailash Hospital is the largest private hospital in UP. It is the only hospital having ISO certificate which is multi-speciality, multi-services 300-bedded hospital having the latest and state-of-the-art equipment and infrastructure to treat all type of diseases under one roof.
During a long stint in this field, what sort of innovative initiatives you have introduced so far?
We have taken several measures from time to time in different hospitals. To name a few, for the public in general we arrange free health check-up camps in different areas with a particular aim of detection of disease at the initial stages and to arrange health awareness lectures by specialists for the purpose of educating people about the early signs and symptoms of deadly diseases prevalent in our country. These have been our regular experimental exercises. For the doctors in far-flung and peripheral areas, to arrange CMEs (Continued medical Education) to make them aware about latest developments in medical field and to apprise these doctors periodically of the latest happening in medical field through mailers have been the integral part of our innovative initiatives. We are instrumental in introducing many unique schemes at Kailash Hospital. To name a few, Kailash Privilege Card – with a view to serve more and more number of people, it has been introduced, which offers special privilege to card holders for enjoying hospital services at concessional rates apart from certain privileges.
Kailash Health Plan – In association with New India Insurance co. Ltd, Noida, we offer this plan to those up to the age of 55 years and found medically fit on the basis of medical check-up carried out at our hospital at discounted rate of Rs 650 ( normal charge is Rs 1495). A premium of Rs 1,648 is charged per annum. The medical check-up is one time only.
This plan gives a cover of Rs 1 lakh for general treatment or 1.5 lakh for heart related treatment. The patients do not have to pay at the time of discharge. The hospital claims from the concerned insurance company. This plan is valid in more than 1,000 hospitals all over country.
Durghatna Mitra Policy – In association with United India Insurance Co. Ltd, New Delhi, this hospital offer an accident policy with that name. This covers all medical treatments arising out of any type of accident up to Rs 1 lakh at the annual premium of Rs 250 only. This policy is also a cash less policy and hospital claims from the concerned insurance company.
We are also instrumental in installing the teleconferencing facility in the hospital. Now, the relatives and attendants of the patients are able to talk and interact with their wards in the CCU with the help of a two-way communication system. We are also toying with the idea of putting the photos and details of new born babies on internet with the permission of their parents so that their other relatives residing in far flung areas could visually intimated about this good news immediately.