2nd Annual Conference

'PPP can work through innovative models of participation and not by outcomes of standard bidding processes'

The conference brought together top leaders of various respected corporate houses to tackle the future challenges and needs of healthcare consumers and industry

Hospital buildings are highly engineered, but client's understanding of it is low. More than 50 per cent cost of hospital projects is in the building itself and 50 per cent of that is in Medical Equipment Planning, said Dr Vivek Desai, Managing Director, Hosmac India Private Limited. He was speaking on 'Ensuring Quality in Hospital Planning' at 2nd annual conference under healthcare management series of Mumbai's PD Hinduja Hospital on 10th and 11th of December.

This year's theme 'Healthcare@2020' contributed to the continuing discussions on challenges faced by Indian healthcare industry to ensure a healthy future for everyone. The conference brought together top leaders of various respected corporate houses to tackle the future challenges and needs of healthcare consumers and industry. Express Healthcare was the media partner for this conference. Technopak, Astron and Ernst & Young were the knowledge partners. The conference was inaugurated by His Excellency Francois Pujolas- Consul General De France and Jean Joel Schittecatte, Consul General of Belgium.

Said Joy Chakraborty, Organising Secretary of Healthcare @ 2020 and Deputy Director - Hinduja Hospital, "Today all of us are aware about the demand supply gap in healthcare and it is likely to be further challenged in coming years. Healthcare @ 2020 is the initiative to take this agenda further forward so that every member of healthcare fraternity can be prepared to serve humanity better."

Planning of Hospital for Future

Said Monika Kejriwal, Prinicipal Consultant, Healthcare Practice, Techopak Advisors Private Limited, "Indian healthcare is on an upwardly growth path and need quality infrastructure. The trends in healthcare planning which will help in this respect are service line planning, integrated diagnostic and treatment platforms, flexibility, consumer dynamics, shift of care to short-stay environments, design as a differentiator, new information paradigms and evidence based design. Dr Rana Mehta, VP-Healthcare, Technopak Advisors Pvt Ltd gave a quick overview of this year's conference theme healthcare@2020 to the audience. "It is estimated that in India, more than 46 per cent of the patients travel over 100 kms from small towns to these facilities to seek proper medical care. Lack of access to healthcare can severely impact economic growth, resulting in loss of national income of over $250 billion over the next 10 years," said Mehta.

Innovation in Healthcare Process & Practice

Joy Chakraborty

Pramod Lele

Daljit Singh

The next presentation 'The missing care in healthcare' by Ratan Jalan, Founder and Principal Consultant, Medium Healthcare Consulting Pvt Ltd took an interesting stand which accentuated the need to look seriously into the service quality of non clinical areas of healthcare. "Conventional thinking has long held that most patients base their choice of hospital on its clinical reputation, its location, or their physicians' recommendations. A survey by Mckinsey, amongst large number of patients in the US indicated, 20 per cent of a patient's choice is based on a hospital's clinical reputation and, remarkably, about 41 per cent on the non-clinical experience, in sharp contrast to the conventional wisdom," shared Jalan.

While speaking on 'Frontiers and Challenges in Process Design, Nishesh Gupta, Managing Consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers, said, "The challenge in healthcare provision is that the 'raw material' is the 'customer' which evaluates both 'product quality' - How well do I feel, How clean are the areas, How good is the food? and 'service quality' - responsiveness, empathy, assurance and reliability. Statistically speaking, going through the healthcare system is more dangerous than parachuting off a high building!" Dr Sanjeev Singh, Senior Administrator, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi spoke about the importance of healthcare worker safety and Jyot Se Jyot - an initiative taken by AIMS Kochi, Wockhardt, Bangalore, Fortis Noida, Escorts, Delhi in this arena. "To create a network of safe practices we should initiate publishing pooled data, building awareness through 'Spread the light' sessions, use of safe devices and technology and effected healthcare worker needs to be taken care of through counseling and treatment."

Leveraging Technology for Improving Outcomes

Dr Gurmukh Advani, GM Marketing, Healthcare Sector, Siemens gave a presentation on leveraging technologies for better outcomes. While talking about technology's role in positioning of the hospital, Advani said, "Technology could help to attract right medical talent, marketing campaign's will feature technology, healthcare tourism will create demands on upgradations and as more medical disciplines become tech dependent, hospitals will focus even more on this topic." Ashvani Srivastava, CEO, HealthHiway spoke on leveraging technologies for enhancing healthcare delivery with the help of HealthHiway. Prashant Pande, National Sales Manager, SAS India, gave a presentation on 'Business Analytics in Healthcare'. "Business Analytics enhances the quality of care for patients, provides early warning system for patient safety, identifies and eliminates unwanted activities that add to costs and predicts and improves the financial health of the organisation," said Pande.

Changing Formats of Healthcare Delivery

In the session on changing formats of healthcare delivery, Daljit Singh, President, Strategy & Organisational Development & Chief Executive- Projects, Fortis Healthcare Ltd threw light on the changing healthcare delivery models. "Care delivery models should involve the workplace, community organisations and other non traditional settings to leverage regular patient contact and the ability to develop a group culture of wellness."

Public Private Partnership for making better provision of Healthcare

Pramod Lele, Chief Executive, Hinduja Hospital spoke on PPP in healthcare in India. He spoke in detail about the rural healthcare system in India and NRHM initiative taken by the Government. Pradip Kanakia, Executive Director and Head-Healthcare Services, KPMG India gave a presentation on 'Public Private Partnership - For Making Better Provision of Healthcare'. While talking about the key success factors for PPP in healthcare he said that both private and public players need to have high stakes, a clear PPP policy framework is required, clarity of pricing mechanism is essential and capacity and skill building is essential within the public sector to manage complex PPP projects.

Charu Sehgal, Senior Director, Deloitte Touche Tohmastu India Pvt Ltd gave a presentation on 'Healthcare for All—A Collaborative Approach (PPP)'. "PPP can work through innovative/specific models of participation and not by outcomes of standard bidding processes," said Sehgal.

Making Healthcare Affordable & Available

The session on making healthcare affordable and available for all started with the presentation on 'Emerging new paradigm in Indian healthcare-Tomorrow's 5 Ps- providers, physicians, patients, payers and policy makers' by A Vaidheesh, MDM Johnson & Johnson Medical India. Next speaker Dr Ajit Dangi, President & CEO, Danssen Consulting, spoke on the role of pharmaceutical industry in making healthcare affordable. "Pharma industry can make contribution in making healthcare affordable by deploying the large and well trained field force to educate public at large on various preventive measures; it can adopt villages with a planned and focused strategy to reduce / eliminate incidence of at least one disease and can promote responsible self medication through safe OTC drugs," opined Dangi. Nimish Parekh, Founder & President, Wellinformed, Cecilia Healthcare Services Pvt Ltd spoke on the importance of total health and chronic care management in making healthcare affordable and available for all.

Healthcare Financing

Rana Mehta

Ratan Jalan

Dilip Khanna, Partner, Transaction Advisory Services, Ernst & Young Pvt Ltd gave a presentation on trends in healthcare financing. While talking about evolution of healthcare financing, he said, "In early 1980's and 1990's, there were only few IPOs, most hospitals set-up under the trust/ co-operative society structure and there was a negative view of healthcare sector due to high level of NPA's. However in mid 2000s and beyond we can see a drastic shift where now hospitals are set up under corporate structure, hospital chains have emerged, increasing Government support can be seen in terms of five year tax holiday in, for setting up hospitals in non-tier I cities and increased focus of investors as healthcare is being viewed as recession proof industry." The last speaker of the day Vikram Gupta spoke on private equity and venture capital as new paradigms for healthcare financing. He spoke at length about the interesting opportunities to private investors in the emerging Indian healthcare sector. "Investment opportunities exist across all the domains of healthcare and Life Sciences. For example, Healthcare Delivery: Hospitals, Specialty Clinics, Wellness Chains and Medical cities, etc; Healthcare and Life Sciences Enabling Services: Healthcare IT, Education, Retail Pharmacies, Laboratory Diagnostics, Telemedicine, Medical Equipment, Healthcare Insurance etc and Pharma and Biotech: Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical manufacturers, Drug Development support services, Contract Manufacturing, Bio-generics and Biologics, Clinical Research Organisations," said Gupta.

Communication and PR

The second day started with the power packed secession on communication and PR in healthcare. Anil Maini, President, Corporate Development, Apollo Hospitals Group spoke on 'Strategy for a Competitive Edge in a Changing Environment'. Said Maini, "With marketing strategy and planning, hospitals can organise and shape their strategic thinking. A sound marketing plan starts with an analysis of external and internal trends, a well-developed segmentation scheme, a meaningful positioning, and a carefully crafted set of marketing tactics." Next speaker Vivek Shukla, Healthcare Business Consultant gave an overview of the future opportunities and challenges in healthcare marketing.

Safe Practices in Healthcare

Gita Nataraj, Convener, Infection Control Committee, Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital gave a presentation on 'Infection Prevention vs Control: A cost-benefit analysis' while addressing the session on safe practices in healthcare. Said Nataraj, "Health-care Associated Infections (HCAI) are the infections that were not present initially however occurred as a consequence of healthcare delivery. According to WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care 2009, WHO Guidelines on Safe Surgery 2009, in developing countries, HCAI rate is 10-30 per cent and neonatal infections are 3-20 times higher."

Changing Formats of Healthcare Delivery

Dr Vikram Chhatwal, Member Governing Council, Mandke Foundation spoke on changing models of healthcare by developing a framework for analysing healthcare of the future. While talking about the key challenges and opportunities that exist in the current scenario, he said, "We need to address all income segments with wider care options with development of new models/products/sharing of risk. We can also witness a shift to personalised, predictable and preventive medicine." Dr Gopinath Shenoy, Medico Legal Consultant spoke on consumerism in healthcare.

Challenges in HR

Dr CAK Yesudian, Dean, School of Health Systems Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences gave a presentation on emerging human resource issues in health sector. He voiced his concern over the fact that professional management is still lacking in hospitals. Human resource management specialists are few and HR issues vary from one category of staff to another which is a challenge to HR managers. Dr Shubnum Singh, Chief Medical Affairs (External) & Founder Member, Max Healthcare Institute Ltd spoke on leadership challenges in healthcare. "The most common cause of leadership failure is treating an adaptive problem with a technical fix. We need less management and more leadership. There are very distinct qualitative differences. Management assumes controlling, directing, checking. There is a specificity to management: there is an assumption of authority and control in management," opined Singh. While talking about the HR challenges in healthcare sector, Dr K Prabakar, Senior VP- Corporate HR, Apollo Hospitals Group, said, "Employee engagement and incentive realignment is an an effective strategy to retain employees who play a major role in the journey in pursuit of excellence. Employee engagement facilitates employees in their performance to enhance and cultivate talent and opportunities and realign incentives through right financial drivers' supports accountability and responsibility for healthcare decisions."

Live to Give Hope Oration

Dr Girdhar J Gyani, Secretary General, Quality Council of India spoke on quality in healthcare for saving billion of lives. Gyani said that health industry by and large remains un-regulated. NABH accreditation incorporates compliance to mandatory regulatory requirements i.e. fire safety, bio-medical waste, radiation etc. "Government today is looking at NABH accreditation as alternate avenue for regulation, patient safety and quality of care coming as bonus. Government to begin with, is promoting accreditation in its various empanelling schemes," said Gyani.

Conforming Quality Standards in Healthcare

Dr Y P Bhatia, Managing Director, Astron Hospital & Healthcare Consultants Pvt Ltd gave a presentation on role of waste audits in cost effective quality healthcare. Dr Bhatia spoke about elements of waste reduction. "Set clear waste reduction aims, resource joint clinical and financial teams, establish a culture of waste reduction, integrate cost reduction into balanced portfolio of initiative, engage clinicians through waste reduction, identify the biggest causes of waste, use appropriate measurement tools and reward and celebrate successes," he said.

Sunil Nayak, CEO, Sodexo India gave presentation on services coming beyond the boundaries of clinical care.

The conference concluded with a panel discussion where industry and Government leaders in healthcare discussed on the posed challenges.

EH News Bureau