Spotlight

On the Success Path

From a loss-making hospital to almost doubling its turnover, Mediciti Hospital in Hyderabad has set an example of how innovative strategies can do wonders for the organisation, finds out Priti Pathak

Located in the city of pearls, Hyderabad, the multi-speciality Mediciti Hospital is a 175-bed corporate hospital, established in 1993. Since the past decade, it has witnessed a dramatic change in its outlook. There's been a complete revamp for a comprehensive facelift in infrastructure, equipment, staff and the services of the hospital.

Loss-making to Profitable Entity

Until October 2007, the hospital was bleeding. But thereafter some drastic measures were taken to turnaround the hospital. Remembers COO and Director Dr Naga Malleswar Rao, "When I joined the hospital in 2007, I found out that the marketing team and some of the consultants were lackadaisical about their work and thus not performing well. With this kind of attitude of the staff, it was not possible to take the hospital to a level where it is at present."

So, the management with the help of Dr Rao quickly identified the non-productive staff and replaced them with efficient people.

The hospital thus appointed 16 new consultants and replaced the old marketing team by a team of dynamic and experienced marketing executives. "Within a span of nine months, Mediciti doubled its annual revenue turnover from Rs 25 crore to over Rs 50 crore. The monthly business of the hospital has gone up to Rs 420 lakh from Rs 211 lakh with substantial operating surplus," he informs.

Cardiac-Area of Focus

"Within nine months, Mediciti doubled its annual revenue turnover from Rs 25 crore to over Rs 50 crore" - Dr Naga Malleswar Rao COO and Director Mediciti Hospital Hyderabad

When the hospital was inaugurated in 1993, it was a multispeciality entity but cardiology was the focus area because the founder Dr PS Reddy was a cardiologist. So, the hospital is still known for its specialisation in cardiology treatment. “When I joined the hospital, we were nowhere in the league of top hospitals. But today, I am privileged to say that we are one pf the leaders," shares Dr Rao. The hospital gets patients from all over Andhra Pradesh and also from Karnataka and Maharashtra. Around 40 per cent of the patients are from Hyderabad city.

For the fact that the hospital is known for its cardiac treatments, patients mostly come for cardiology. Some also come for neurology.

The hospital possesses a team of four cardiac surgeons and a promising team of four neuro surgeons. The hospital also performs kidney transplantation and specialises in orthopedic knee surgeries. "In radiology, we are comparably best with any other centre in Hyderabad. In cardiac care, we have two cathlabs which are doing extremely well. Besides this, in just a period of one month our hospital has performed 71 open heart surgeries which is quite a remarkable achievement in itself," beams Dr Rao.

New Implementations

The increased operational surplus has allowed upgrading the hospital in the form of new and ultra modern equipment. In order to meet the expectations of the people, in the last three to four months, Mediciti has spent Rs 10 crore to acquire the best quality '64 slice CT Scan' which gives high-end output and can also be used for cardiac diagnosis. In addition to this, MRI, radiology and digital X-Rays are other sophisticated medical equipment in its possession, which are helping in diagnosing the complex diseases effectively. Now, with the advent of new X-Ray system, large films are being replaced with high-resolution digital films, which are handy and more informative.

As far as IT goes, the Hospital has Hospital Management System (HMS) which was implemented in October 2007. It is an integrated end-to-end HMS that provides relevant information across the hospital to support effective decision making for patient care, hospital administration and critical financial accounting in a seamless flow. The hospital has invested Rs 10 lakh in this system.

Expanding Wings

From 135 beds the hospital has plans to expand to 175 beds by January, 2009. "We plan to tread into other areas of specialisation, such as liver transplantation and hepatic healthcare, which is one of India's largest sectors, in terms of revenue and employment and the sector is expanding rapidly," says K Chakradhar, General Manager and Business Development, Mediciti Hospital. The management has also ordered the purchase of an 'electro physiology' equipment to treat heart irregularities electrically. Mediciti also runs a medical college in the outskirts of the city and plans are on to offer online medical services to patients through internet which would help in saving a lot of money and time in treating the patients. The management is also planning to build an 'International Medical Centre' spread across an area of 30 acres between International Airport and Madhapur, Hyderabad.

The main aim of this international centre is to attract medical tourists. Preliminary ground activity is already launched and the project would be fully operationalised with in three years. "We are following international norms in constructing this centre. For instance, according to international standards, a 300-bed hospital must have minimum assets equivalent to nine lakh which includes sufficient parking space, gardens and other facilities. Hyderabad is the cheapest medical destination in India when compared to Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Qualitatively and quantitatively, it has overtaken Chennai and stands in third position for providing best medical services in the country," opines Chakradhar.

For Mediciti, it has been a fruitful journey so far and the administration and staff is all set to explore new horizons and garner more laurels. The hospital has charted its future course and is trying to carve a niche as one of the topmost hospitals in the country.

priti.pathak@expessindia.com