Continuum Of Healthcare Players In Delivering Better Patient Care

Hospitals around the world are under increasing pressure to improve outcomes because today’s increasingly informed patients are deliberately pursuing treatment at facilities with a reputation for superior care.

According to a Lancet study, India ranks 145th among 195 countries in terms of quality and accessibility of healthcare. Despite improvements in healthcare access and quality, India lags way behind on the HAQ index.

At the Hospital Summit and Awards organised by BW Businessworld, the eminent panelists gave insights on how they are contributing to improve efficiencies and deliver better patient care in the healthcare industry.

The session, moderated by Dr. Ashwani Aggarwal, Principal Consultant - Healthcare, PwC, included Vivek Srivastava, Co-Founder And Ceo, Healthcare At Home; Ajoy Khandheria, Founder, Gramin Healthcare; Dr. DK Gupta, CEO, Felix Hospital and Gautam Chopra, Founder and CEO, BeatO.

Gupta stated that globally the home healthcare industry is around $300 million and it is growing at the rate of 8.8 per cent while it is growing around 9 per cent in Asia.

He further said, “In India, the healthcare industry is considered only 2% of the market. However, it is growing at a rate of 18 per cent GAGR in India”.

In order to improve the home care sector, he added, “There is no proper hybrid and integrated model of homecare health products and the homecare providers lack skill and training. Thus, the trust and bonding with the patients are not there and the need of the hour is getting skilled, qualified and trained home care providers to cater the emergency situations”.

Ajoy Khandheria is working in rural areas where he charges only Rs 20 from one whole family and provides all healthcare services to give accessibility and affordability in the healthcare domain in the rural areas.

He expressed his views on how to market healthcare in rural areas, “We promote at home access within the area of 3 to 4 KM radius in seven states. We are healthcare advisors in rural areas who are providing quality service keeping laws and standards of medicare in mind”

Addressing the same, Gautam Chopra one of the panelists talked about the role of technology in the healthcare industry to bridge the supply and demand gap. "The way we perceive healthcare today, which is moving and evolving more in line of where patients are now looked as more as a consumer of certain services and also about access. There is a supply and demand gap in terms of the number of people that require these services and unfortunately, the supply is not meeting the demand."

He further said, “Technology has to play a significant role in insuring proactive intervention in terms of home care when the patient leaves the hospital and to ensure feedback is given to the healthcare practitioner so that the whole ecosystem is charged up in ensuring the best healthcare is delivered to the individual and the access problem is resolved through technology.”

He added, “Technology plays a second role in bridging this gap. Players like us need to play a more meaningful role that the continuum of care is not only limited to a person who is at a clinic or hospital but is actually continuous beyond that”.

Vivek Srivastava pondered his thought on the role of regulators, players and other bodies to insure the entire industry has proper staff. He states, “The government should adopt industry standards and the policymakers need to play a proactive role”.

He added, “The players need to hire the right people, provide them with the right kind of training and maintain the audit in order to insure the quality of the staff.”