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The Iron Man

Despite many oppositions, Dr Pervez Ahmed, CEO of Max Healthcare, is unwavering on his determination to bring radical changes in Max Healthcare. Sonal Vij unravels this tough man

As I sit face-to-face with Dr Pervez Ahmed, CEO-MD, Max Healthcare in his lavish office at Saket, lot of things are running through my mind at super-sonic speed. With a very dazed look and my scribbling pad in my hand, all I am wondering is how I should be summing up his decades of journey and do justice to one of the successful leaders of a highly successful organisation.

While I am trying to silence all the noises running in my head, all I can remember is that the first time you meet him, his body-language and conversations exude a personality that is a little headstrong but considerate. But, the catch lies here— his facial expression is that of a veteran leader, who makes sure that the person sitting in front of him should be completely at ease. Strong, bold, outspoken and yet polite!

The Blue-Blooded Boy

Now, not everyone of us has the privilege of living in the beautiful Mughal Gardens of Rastrapati Bhavan with all luxuries just a command away. Well, Dr Ahmed has indeed had that fairytale upbringing as he is the son of Former President Late Fakruddin Ali Ahmed, who was the President of India from 1974-1977.Was he ever encouraged to join politics? "No, my father encouraged education as a means for self development," says the 61-year-old Dr Ahmed.

The Seeds of Ambition

While for the entire country Dr Ahmed's father was 'the President', but for him he was a father first. And surprisingly in his growing up years, it was not his father but tales about his later grandpa, who was a physician, which influenced his subconscious mind. So, as a 11-year old, Dr Ahmed, nurtured his first seeds of ambition by deciding to become a doctor himself, so as to earn as much respect as his grandpa did.

He recalls, "I had never seen my 'dada' (grandfather), but I heard a lot of good things about him in my family. Those were also the days where doctors earned phenomenal respect and were worshipped like demi-Gods. My dadaji was revered in the entire family. Hence, I was inspired by him." So, all efforts were clearly directed at the aim to be a doctor, which he indeed completed and that too being highly successful at it.

Of Grades and Degrees

Born in Shillong, Assam, Dr Ahmed completed his Indian School Certificate Examination from St Edmunds School followed by pre-medical at Hindu College, New Delhi and Armed Forces Medical College, Pune. After a year and a half residency at Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, in 1972, he went to the US (SUNY Downstate and New York University) and finished his PG and fellowship in cardiology.

He wanted to come back to India after his studies, but decided to stay back on his father's insistence that he garner practical experience. It was his fathers' advice which made him stay in the US. He recalls his fathers' words, "Learning is one thing and knowing how to do things is another, so stay there for a while," but this "while" lasted for 35 years.

He initially planned to come to India for five years. But it was job opportunities, higher medical education, and research which made him stay for so long.

In the US, he was physician In-charge of ICU and Director of Critical Care Medicine at Brookdale Hospital Medical Centre, New York.

India Dreams

Though Dr Ahmed was far away in the US, he kept himself abreast of latest in Indian healthcare. The desire to come back and work for India gave him the opportunity to work for one of India's premier healthcare institutes. Way back in 1987, he was instrumental in setting up Escorts Heart Institute, Delhi. He was involved in designing and developing the hospital concept." It took us seven to eight years to complete it. Those were the days of letters and not internet. Everything was slow," he recalls.

He was also instrumental in designing and building Delhi-based BL Kapur Memorial Hospital (BLKH). He was supposed to join as the CEO and come back to the country, but life had a different plan. He didn't join BLKH. Explaining the reason, he shares, "There were contractual disagreements between the trust members (the owners of BLKH). The owners thought differently."

The Max Offer

Due to Dr Ahmed's involvement with CII in healthcare activities in Delhi, he renewed his old relationships with Analjit Singh, Chairman, Max Healthcare. While he was still in the US, he became an independent board member of Max Healthcare. He also made a point to contribute to every meeting. As an active board member, he was well prepared before any meeting, spent extra days in Delhi visiting and reviewing Max Healthcare facilities. "This gave the board and me an opportunity to understand Max Healthcare and the Chairman must have appreciated the value which led to his decision of approaching me," he shares. It was this which fuelled his return to India.

While happily doing so many things, the turning point happened with one phone call. "One day Analjit called me up and told me that he is coming to the US as he wants to discuss some areas for improvement in Max Healthcare. I, of course, nodded," shares he. But much to the surprise of Dr Ahmed, the Chairman offered him the position of Executive Medical Director. "I had no intentions to come to India till this offer came about," he shares. He adds, "Coming back to India was the toughest decision of my life. I had an established practice and my family there," reflects Dr Ahmed. So why did he come back? "It was the desire to bring a change to the healthcare system. Max Healthcare is much different than when I first joined it."

His family was quite supportive of the decision, but they were a bit upset about the geographical distance. "I wasn't given that option, so I phased it over three months."

Moving up the Ladder

He came back to India two years ago. He served as a Board Member of Max Healthcare Institute Limited from 2005 to 2007 and then in the capacity of Executive Medical Director from 2007-2009, before being designated as the CEO of Max Healthcare Institute in January 2009.

We are Like this Only!

Clearly, if you are working in the West, the attitude of the East can annoy you. So, when he embarked upon his journey as the leader of Max, Dr Ahmed felt the need for a cultural change to bring in more accountability, transparency and a willingness to teach and 'learn to improve.' Moreover, a shift in terms of moving away form the 'blame game'.

Dr Ahmed faced resistance when he decided to evaluate the performance of each and every personnel of his organisation. So much so, that many doctors ended up leaving Max. On this issue, he comments, "There may be doctors who feel that their performance should not be measured, but I totally disagree. Performance evaluation is for improvement. These doctors who didn't like the entire idea of being accountable, had ego problems, left Max. They felt that they are too big for their performance to be measured."

The Max Amendments

Accountability: Talking about changes that he brought to MHC, he says, "There has been more accountability, transparency and quality initiatives." Today, there are measurements standards for everything, including clinical outcomes, and not just accreditations. Also, there has been more physician empowerment and an entire attitude change.

Defining Roles & Responsibilities: Today, in the entire Max Healthcare chain of six hospitals and two medcentres, each hospital is taken as a unit where there is one key person responsible who delegates responsibilities. For every physician, the responsibilities are clearly defined. S/he knows what is expected out of him/her. There is a clear definition of how each department is supposed to function. So hence, there is greater transparency and accountability.

Exploiting Power: Dr Ahmed is passionate about improving the clinical outcomes, but he realised that in the meetings and sessions which he used to excitingly organise and introduce while attendance was not an issue but willing participation in the beginning was an issue. So, he set up a process where outcomes are measured and patient and employee safety is of prime concern. For once, he donned the role of a 'headmaster' and made it 'compulsory' for everyone to attend them! Today, the doctors understand the importance of attending this for improvement. There is a change from within the system.

Bridging the Gap: He has also integrated the clinical and non-clinical systems. There was hardly any inter-departmental communication. All the processes (clinical as well as non clinical) are now integrated and there is one source-point who has information on both.

Healthcare Vision

Dr Ahmed is dreaming big and therefore is thinking big. He wants his Max horizon beyond the clusters of metro population and sincerely feels that healthcare can be an affordable yet profitable model. "The fact that it is only localised to certain areas is a problem because it denies access to a much larger population but some forms of Public Private Partnerships can play a vital role," he opines.

Seeking Answers

The thinker that he is, he always has a big picture in his mind, which goes beyond his Max cocoon. Comparing Indian healthcare industry to the rest of the world, he says that there 'has' to be a solution to meet the manpower demand and supply gap. "In rest of the world, the way they educate people and the way they increase the manpower has changed and we are still in a very old system, governed by a sets of rules which don't apply to modern day and the result is that the quality of the product is that we are getting is not uniform enough which is bad. "We need regulatory change to move ahead. As I am on a host of CII & other national bodies, same time is dedicated to finding 'India-centric healthcare solutions which are very challenging," he avers.

He adds that our regulatory institutes have not kept abreast as per the requirement as per the modern times and that needs to change. “Otherwise we will never be able to meet the demand-supply gap,” he quips.

He also is very upset about the perception that private healthcare holds —that private healthcare players are there only to make profits. "In reality, we have shown the way for better quality and availability of tertiary care at highly competitive pricing." About the private sector he shares, "I believe that we are partners in the healthcare solution for India. We have shown the way for higher quality and availability of tertiary care at highly competitive rates."

The Fine Balance

Has life changed post being the CEO? "Yes, it has changed quite a bit. One of the things that I have learnt is how to manage my time, how to do what needs to be done. So, life is busy, obviously, I have more responsibility, which is good for me. Now, I can accomplish a lot more than I could be before by just sensibly managing my time and being focused. If we want anything achievable, we should focus, it should be time bound and that's what creates success!"

On balancing his personal and professional life, he says, "All my life I have got phone calls in the middle of the night! So I am used to it as my profession is very demanding. It's tough to balance." So how does Dr Ahmed manage? "I believe that it's not quantity of time with the family but quality. I am sure when I can say that I am pretty close to my daughters and my wife. We discuss everything. So I must have balanced it well."

Expansion

Max Healthcare will have four new hospitals—Shalimar Bagh (Delhi), Dehradun (Himachal Pradesh), Bhatinda ( Punjab) and Mohali (Punjab). These will be 250-bed greenfield projects. These will be multi-speciality tertiary care centres. "These are current expansion plans which have been funded. We will have 1,200 beds in another year and a half. We do have the vision of 4,000-5,000 beds by another 10 years," he says, confidently.

While he realised his dreams following the footsteps of his grandpa, it's time to look at father's footsteps as Dr Ahmed's political streak is alive and kicking nowadays. He confesses that he may follow the footsteps of his father and become a politician, but not before he retires. Surely even then, he will contribute to the healthcare industry!

sonal.vij@expressindia.com