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Certification
German Certification Eyes Indian Hospitals
Temos-certified facilities will have access to knowhow
of the German Aerospace Centre
Andreas Lanyi |
Germany-based Temos, which certifies hospitals for quality,
is keen on foraying into India and South America. Temos, a subsidiary company
of German Aerospace Centre (which is owned by the German Government), has already
certified 30 facilities in South-east Asia, Eastern and South Europe. Temos
certification system and the respective standards were established in 2006 as
the result of problems insurance companies worldwide were facing with respect
to the management of international patient cases.
Asked to specify the countries that Temos is planning to foray and why, Andreas
Lanyi, Senior Manager International Business & Head of Telemedicine Department,
Temos, said, "We are focusing on countries (without USA), in which we find
a high amount of tourists from Europe/ Germany and expatriates, workers and
managers from Europe and Germany. Mainly this will be South/East Europe and
IN Asian countries, especially India, Indonesia, China, and Korea.”
And what benefits would Temos-certified hospitals have? "They will have
access to knowhow of the Aerospace Centre and will be offered services and consultation,
telemedicine and e-health, health tourism, data providing and tele-teaching.
We would also provide telemonitoring of chronic disease patient at home. This
would ensure less need of traveling, better support of urban areas, treat more
patients with less effort, have better patient compliance and have less complication,"
he said.
The company is going to release a new product 'Temos Health Tourism' for Temos-certified
hospitals in the third quarter of 2009. Certified hospitals will get free access
to tele-lectures, e-courses and relevant partners from research, insurance and
assistance institutions from Germany and other European countries. Temos will
also offer consultancy for implementing second opinion treatments in hospitals.
“The German Aerospace Centre, for instance, supports the German military
in telemedical concepts and has a great knowledge since the last 15 years, which
Temos is cooperating with,” he said.
In the recent past, Temos started several projects to strengthen its activities
in the fields of health tourism and supply of patients to the hospitals. "For
instance, we began cooperation with the German association of physicians specialised
in travel medicine. These physicians give consultations to travelers, before
they start their journey. They stated that they are pleased with the Temos Quality
System and that they would like to support it. One way of support is supposed
to be the recommendation of Temos Certified Hospitals to travelers," he
adds.
It is planning to co-operate with the travel industry and the travel health
insurance industry in order to inform hotels and other relevant tourism players
about the right medical facility to choose, in case of necessary medical treatment.
"In the long-term, we want to gain more patients from the EU: emergency
based and health tourism based patients,” he adds.
In this age of accreditation, why would anyone value certification? "The
Temos Quality System is different from other certification/accreditation systems
on the market, like the JCI accreditation or an ISO certification. Applicants
for a Temos certification have to prove that they are able to treat international
patients on a high quality level, including the services which are asked deleted
by international patients, insurances and assistance companies," he adds.
Most of the hospitals applying for a Temos certification already have a national
or an international accreditation. "To sharpen their international profile,
they decided to also apply for a Temos certification with its high acceptance
among European travellers and insurances/assistances and with its access to
the associated global network," he adds.
Rita Dutta
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