Since We Began Our Journey, Our Focus Has Been To Bring Care To Healthcare: Abhay Soi

Please tell me about your collaboration with Tihar for skill development. 
As a part of our CSR initiatives, we are focused on skill development and water conservation.  

We just announced the launch of the Max Skill Training for Sustainable Livelihoods program in association with Tihar Jail, which aligns with our focus on skilling. This is one of the largest corporate sector partnership with Tihar Jail for a skill training program in India, that aims to further correctional reform for 1200 inmates. 

It aims to further strengthen the rehabilitation program at Tihar Jail that focuses on education, vocational training, and therapy to reduce recidivism rates and promote successful integration into society. Someone asked me about the optics of employing people who have served time. My answer is simple, those who want to work, will put in a lot of effort to work hard and keep their jobs. Human beings have the ability to reform and change. Isn’t it our responsibility to help each other?  

Over the last few years, what is it that you could you have done differently? 
There are several things. Since we began our journey, our focus has been to bring care to healthcare. Our priority is to serve, can we serve better? Of course, we can.  

We really got behind this and continue to see where we can improve and add value. Let me give you a couple of examples. Take the patient journey, which includes the process of admission, the people they interact with, and the infrastructure. We looked at all touch points and assessed how we can do better. We instituted a simple measure that if a patient calls any of our hospitals across the country and the phone is not answered in five rings, the next three ring will be on the COOs phone, and if that is not answered, it will be mine. The first month we instituted this, my phone rang twice and has not rung since.  

Then there is the concept of personal touch, we insist that the leadership team visit the hospitals and not rely purely on the data being sent to them. Nothing can beat taking feedback personally and meeting people.  

So, you see our focus has always been to get into the details and improve processes and systems wherever we can. And, we will continue to do so.  

Please tell us about your plans of expansion 
We are massively underserved in India when it comes to quality healthcare, the figures are something like 100,000 private hospital beds for all of India, which is a meagre number when compared to our requirement. It is the government hospitals really, that are shouldering the burden of providing healthcare. And, now with people having access to insurance, private hospitals are in demand, which in turn means there is demand to build infrastructure.  

We have announced expansion at a cost of Rs 5000 crore over the next four years. We are adding 2,600 beds over the 3,500 that we have through greenfield, brown field expansions, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). We have a brown field expansion in Dwarka, adding 300 beds built in 8.2-acre land slated to start some time in Q1 FY 24. Then, a new wing is under construction at Nanavati Max Hospital, which when completed will add another 600 beds to the hospital, making it one of the largest private healthcare facilities in Western India. There is a lot more planned.  

Medical education is another area of focus, right? 
Yes, that’s right. We taught close to 10,000 students last year across various medical programs, and are very keen on having our own medical college here in Delhi. Both research and academics are at the core of what we do, we have published more than 2000 papers over the last five years for both international and domestic journals. In fact, we have several international students who come in to study with us.  

Please tell me about your focus on technology  
Robotics has been a large investment for us. To start with, we got the machines on pay-per-use. But within a year, we doubled the number of machines. It is in a way natural progression since we want to be using cutting edge technology.  

Further, our investment in the Max My Health App has enhanced patient experience, enabled easier access to clinicians and has helped patients access all their health records in one place.  

There have been approximately five lakh downloads in less than a year. The app does 100 video consults daily, with 40 per cent of users viewing their electronic medical records. 80 per cent of our doctors who have outpatient clinics at the hospital have signed up on the app.  

Who has access to the patient data? 
Only the patient, the referring and treating doctor have access to the medical records.  

Your view on the Indian health tech sector  
There is a huge amount of innovation and disruption taking place in the health tech sector. From a consumer standpoint we don’t necessarily have to be the first to embrace technology, but when we do it must be the right technology. For hospitals like us to adopt it, it has to be proven, scalable and the technology should have the ability to learn on its own.  

Your view on government to increase GDP spend 
The government is doing its bit. The spend has gone up however, we have a large population and a responsibility towards providing quality healthcare. In addition to the government doing their part, the private sector too has a responsibility to be efficient and provide best in class healthcare.