Dr Praneet Kumar

Dr Praneet KumarBLK Super Speciality Hospital spells the saga of success. The strength behind the struggle, Dr Praneet Kumar, CEO, speaks to Shahid Akhter, ENN about his vision and approach

Please tell us about the early days of BLK Super Speciality Hospital?

The spirit of philanthropy paved the way for a charitable hospital in 1930 at Lahore. It was the humble vision and effort of Dr B L Kapur, an eminent obstetrician and gynaecologist. In the aftermath of partition, he migrated to Ludhiana and established a Maternity Hospital here. Dr. Kapurs service and dedication was exemplary in the medical fraternity. His pioneering efforts and acumen in hospital administration were recognised by Pandit Nehru, who invited him to establish a hospital in New Delhi.

In 1959, the hospital with 200 beds was inaugurated by Pandit Nehru. Initially it was a mother and child hospital which gradually evolved into a full fledged institution. Around the Silver Jubilee celebration in 1984, the hospital was in the expanding mode and had incorporated specialities like general surgery, ophthalmology, ENT, dentistry, pulmonology, intensive care and orthopedics. It was well on its way to becoming Delhis premier institute.

Keeping pace with the growing needs and the changing times, the trustees initiated an upgradation. In the late 1990s, Radiant Life Care Private Limited was roped in to re-develop and manage the facility. Today, a modern state-of-the-art tertiary care with quarternary care capabilities in almost all specialties has come up in place of the old hospital.

You joined BLK in 2010 and since then a lot of repositioning and rebranding exercise has taken place. What are your priorities and plans?

I joined Radiant Lifecare Pvt. Ltd as its CEO. BLK was its first project, so I became the CEO of the hospital. When I took over, the organisation was lacking in vision and the driving force to instil confidence and motivation among staff. The hospitals image required major turn-around strategies. My first priority was to build a tower of specialities and I achieved this by clubbing the best professionals in the industry. I began with oncology and established BLK Cancer Centre and this was followed by other centres of excellence in bone marrow, GI, neuro sciences, renal sciences, cardiac, etc. Now we can boast of a full team to take care of liver transplant. I am equally proud of over 100 bone marrow transplants with 100 percent success.

I also rolled out short term and long term plans and this was based on feedback and inputs from our doctors. I put together a team of some of the best professionals in healthcare administration and development. Periodically, we access the goals and achievements of each department. I personally take care of counselling and training the staff. I have no qualms in accepting our shortcoming or weaknesses.

We are in the process of developing the infrastructure to increase our capacity. As of now, the building is made for 500 beds but with modifications we aiming at 200 more beds.

What is the Infrastructure at BLK today ?

BLK is one of the biggest stand alone private Hospitals in the National Capital Region today with
700 beds including 125 critical care beds.
17 state of the art modular operation theatres with three stage air filtration.
Largest Bone marrow transplant unit in the country and amongst the largest in Asia. That facilitates both allogenic and autologous transplant services. Weve conducted the first Haplotransplant and Indias first MUD transplant as well.
Asias first Cyberknife VSI and many other equipments that place us at the forefront of cutting edge technology
First in Delhi to introduce automatic pneumatic chute system which increases the efficiency and efficacy of health care delivery.
NABH and NABL accreditation that certifies the quality of standard of healthcare.
Besides creating a complete WiFi enabled hospital, we on the way to claim the first paperless hospital in the country.

During the dengue outbreak, hospitals were referring patients to us. We had the infrastructure. In Delhi, blood transfusion centre at BLK was the only pace for blood component separation.

How do you think multi-specialty hospitals are gaining popularity these days?

Our new logo represents our ethos and spirit. The Tree of Life in logo symbolizes the nexus or connectivity of all beings, the central focus of hospitals Identity. This symbolic tree comes alive from the intersection of crosses, the ancient symbol of life and the two arms that mark the trunk of the tree signifies the supportive care and patient-centricity at a subliminal level. The shield is again a symbol of all round protection and authority in the field of Healthcare.

Multi-speciality hospital is the need of the hour. Today time has outpaced life. In our fast paced world, we continually strive to cram in as much as possible in our routineof 24 hours. Under such circumstances, who will not love to see and experience everything under one roof. Specialities apart, we have narrowed down to organ specific experts and expertise. For instance, a neuro surgeon will remain confined to his domain, someone handling breast cancer will stick to his speciality.

Moreover, we focus not just on the patient but equally well on the family. Everyone needs to feel comfortable and as counselors we update them and ensure that they are well awareof their condition, treatment and most  important, fielding their queries and allaying any doubt or fear that they may be harbouring.

What technological advancements have been introduced recently?

In the domain of infrastructure, we can boast of a string of achievements and advancements – to name a few

We are the first in India to use cyberknife (7th installation in the world with 50 cases to our credit). The latest generation PET CT scan. A TriologyTx Linear Accelerator with cone beam CT for Radiation Oncology (versatile equipment which is used for providing, Image guided radiotherapy (IGRT), Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) and Gated Radiotherapy. 1.5 Tesla volume MRI, which is the first of its kind in India. The special feature of this MRI is its ability to generate 3D images, cut the Acquisition time by half and increase the efficiency of the machine. CT- 128 Slice volume 3D CT Scan has been installed in the Hospital. Bone Mineral Density (BMD) – Whole body mineral scan capable of giving instant reports.

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