Dr Garima Singh

India has an availability of complete inequitable infrastructure. You find surplus in some pockets while you find it completely deficient in certain areas. To engage optimum healthcare, a suitable infrastructure is vital, says Dr Garima Singh, CEO, Saket City Hospital while speaking with Romiya Das of Elets News Network (ENN)

Dr Garima Singh, CEO, Saket City Hospital

Dr Garima Singh,
CEO, Saket City Hospital

How does Health Information System enable us to serve our patients better?

Health Information System (HIS) is extremely vital in different ways. From the time when the patient comes in for the first consultation, either in the OPD or in the emergency, all these records are registered. The medical records are retained to maintain the condition of the patient. From there, the admission formalities are done through a system along with other facilities. So, the entire system is geared to understand whether the patient is moving. It determines the acuity of care which is required and it determines our response to them. Labs, radiology these are all integrated to the unique patient identity.

Can you elaborate on how technology is implemented by Saket City Hospital for patient management system?

Each institution has its own set of policies. We have our own HIS that has been developed with a third party and which we have instituted right across the system. All our billing, radiology patient flows – are managed on the HIS, which has been developed by Akhil Systems.

Do government regulations or policies need to be changed or made better for the benefit of the hospitals to create a better infrastructure?

The government needs to understand that each of the institutions are running at a particular level of cost and the cost of providing care is going up for two-three different reasonsone is the rising salaries to beat the inflation. The cost of acquiring manpower is increasing year-by year. With the dollar strengthening and most of the equipment, consumables and drugs coming up from abroad, we are losing leverage. Its an erosion of the profitability.

On the other hand, CGHS and other government hospitals are not increasing their prices. Appropriate pricing for services of discounted business through CGHS, ECHS and all need to be looked at very seriously. Making certain clinical outcome indicators mandatory for the hospitals to report. In India, there is no policy barring a few. It helps the country when you put across the demographic profile to rank in the world index. In the current scenario, every hospital claims to be the best. Are you educating the patient and is it reliable? Is there any data to prove that? So, the government needs to ensure the credentials of the doctors. Thirdly, making hospital land available. The basic criteria must be why a hospital in a particular area is needed, and if so, what specialities should be there. It should be driven by the community.

What are the upcoming projects of Saket City Hospital?

In the first phase, we will be going from 230 to 300 beds, which is a one year plan. In two years plan, we will have additional 700 beds going upto a total of 1000 beds. It will be our high end facility dedicated to the western philosophy completely. We will probably have investors coming on board to partner with us in the new expansion phase. Apart from these, we are going to have a dedicated research and development centre. The idea is to get the best of minds together at one place. For instance, you have a doctor in Malaysia and a patient from India flies down there to be operated by him and you want to have an outpost here. It is a data concept and it is an office clinic, almost like a medical mall. We are planning a space for this, which has an additional 400 beds.

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