After interviewing a range of top ranked hospitals in Andhra Pradesh, we have come to the conclusion that the growth of Indian hospitals is a halfway through chase. The crests and troughs of the growth story is presented here. A closer look!

Hospital operation in India has gone a paradigm shift. Lot of work related sophistication has come in the form of health IT and medical equipment. To make the transition process fast- er and even more efficient, today Indian hospitals largely rely on technologies. Technology has brought the required turn- around in dealing with any disease and patient perse. Dr Parvez Ahmed, Director of Rainbow Childrens Hospital says, The latest improvisation in techniques related to health is very cost-effective. Technology has made procedures simpler and less painful, less cumbersome and less time consuming.

Technology Handholding
While healthcare is shallow breathing in Indian villages, in urban India the picture is different. Urban and semi urban hospitals are adopting technologies in a greater way to make healthcare reachable to all. For instance, at Rainbow Childrens Hospital the health centers are interconnected through Wipro Health Management Information System (HMIS). Dr Ahmed shares, We can access our other centers through main branch. HMIS is implemented in overall system like in operation theatres, pharmacy, billing, HR, accounts etc. Also we have facilities to offer web based appointment services to patients. After appointments, appointment confirmation is given through an SMS. Audio / visual conference systems are in place so that interconnectivity is maintained. It is pivotal in smooth functioning of healthcare sector and ensures less manpower, less negligence, less human error, less experience. Hence productivity is manifold.

Similarly Kasi Raju, COO, Care Hospital says, We realised that ICT is no longer a simple tool for billing and ac- counting. Hence we have taken IT as one of the key elements in all our strategic decisions. Considerable investments have been made in terms of building a robust and state of the art infrastructure (including LAN/WAN and data centre), implementation of Oracle ERP etc. Plans are on to move towards paperless and filmless operations, by revamping our current IT applications and implementation of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) across all our facilities. A comprehensive Patient Relation- ship Management platform is being deployed to enhance patient experience. With ever increasing demand for on-time information for patient care and business decisions, it is clear that ICT based analytical tools like Business Intelligence (BI), Credit Default Systems (CDSs) will be the enablers.
R Govind Hari, Chairman & Managing Director, Pushpagiri Eye Institue & Pushpagiri Healthcare Hospitals Pvt Ltd says, Investment in ICT is around two percent of our capital and revenue, but we intend to move it to 4.5 percent in next three years. With NABH focus, we are slowly moving towards analytics and data mining for both our clinical process and administrative process. e-Learning is being slowly integrated in our teaching at both under graduate level and post graduate level.

Present Scenario
According to the Investment Commission of India, the market size of hospitals and nursing homes will grow at 20 per- cent every year and projected to stand at `54,000 crore. Medical equipment on the other hand will be somewhere close to `9,000 crore with 15 per cent growth; clinical lab diagnostics with `4,500 crore – a clear 30 per cent increase. In addition to this, imaging diagnostics will be an- other money spinning business stand- ing at `4, 500 crore (30 per cent growth). Other services including training and education, aesthetics and weight loss, and retail pharmacy will stand at `9,000 crore.

Yet, affordable healthcare is a far- fetched concept in Indian villages. According to reports, several hospitals in India have ventilators that do not function, and most cannot even afford a ventilator. This has led to higher mortality rate. While healthcare facilities in larger towns and cities have improved drastically, in towns and villages most residents are still dependent on small private clinics and government facilities that are highly stretched.

Remote villages in the country are still lacking chemist shops, let alone a clinic. For the wider masses, healthcare services remain prohibitively expensive. Although as per a recent study, the Government has set up over 22,000 primary healthcare centers in villages across India, these often remain just structures as doctors, radiographers, pathologists, etc, are hard to find.

On this R Govind Hari says, Affordable Healthcare is meted out to a patient on the basis of need but not on his or her ability to pay. We need to build a cross subsidy model where the afford- able pays for the one who cannot afford in the healthcare business without compromising quality. Reaching out to tier II and tier III towns, providing the state- of-the-art quality, using and training local talents, which are less expensive, increase the volume through sensitising and educating the population.

Kasi Raju says, By affordable healthcare we mean, immediate action to pre- serve and expand coverage, essential health benefit requirements, community health insurance options, affordable coverage choices. Affordable healthcare is essential healthcare which is scientifically and practically sound bases social acceptable methods and technology. The healthcare provided by the various institutions to be universally accessible to each and every person in the world.

According to Rekha Ranganathan, Senior Director and Head of Strategy at Philips Healthcare, affordability means different things to different consumers. It has one meaning for the premium consumer, and another for rural customers. So we have to constantly uate the price point which our consumers are able to pay, she said.
At the end, it can be said that India with its enormous potential of delivering healthcare across all verticals only will be conductive if a required amount of handholding comes from the Government and from the private healthcare organisations and other private players.

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