We Believe In Delivering Clinical Excellence: Pankaj Sahni
Medanta hospital was recently acknowledged as the best private hospital in India by a global industry survey. Pankaj Sahni, CEO, Medanta Hospital, speaks about the hospital's expansion plans and the benefits and challenges of the National Digital Health Mission.
What makes Medanta a success?
The clinicians, the technology, the infrastructure, and the value system we have put in place make us what we are. We decided when we began that we would deliver at the absolute highest level. This value flows down into every aspect from the machines we buy to the recruitment we do. When you walk into Medanta, you will see this wall we refer to as the tree of life, it is a spot where people tie a holy thread and make a wish for their ailing relatives. An inscription on that reads ‘every life is precious', and that is the ethos we follow.
What are the expansion plans for the hospital?
There are several sticks in the fire. We currently have five operating hospitals, these are in Gurgaon, Lucknow, Ranchi, Indore, and Patna. Our in-patient services in Patna have been the most recent, we started it just before the Omicron wave came around. We will be building a hospital in Noida as well, and have started working towards that. We are also looking into associated services such as home care, outpatient pharmacy services, and telemedicine.
The World Health Organization’s guidelines are 1 doctor for 1000 people. What are your thoughts on the ratio of nurses and doctors to patients in India?
We have a huge shortage of doctors and nurses in the country. There is a talent shortage in the country and we need to get far more aggressive in developing our healthcare talent. Training has to be given its due importance. We also need to adapt and skill shift – by this I mean, train medical workers to take on additional responsibilities where possible. We also need to make regulatory changes to allow for medical staff to practice their skills at the highest end of their training. Not only will this provide employment, but it will also free up manpower to be used in an optimum way.
Let’s discuss the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) and what could be the challenges to its success?
It is a brilliant and a much-needed initiative if we truly want to provide quality healthcare to the population of our country. The ease with which health institutions (once authorised by the patient) can have access to a patients’ medical data will make all the difference in giving him quality care. It will also reduce the transaction cost of a number of associated services in the ecosystem. For example, Insurance companies incur a cost for processing a claim, once this moves to a digital ecosystem like the NDHM, the cost goes down manifold and out-patient insurance can become a reality.
Having said that, one of the challenges is the lack of human connection when we deal with technology. The relationship between a patient and his caregiver is a human relationship of trust and we must find a way to strengthen it through technology. There are also operational challenges such as healthcare units will have to get access to tech platforms and digitise their systems.
Will data privacy be a challenge for the NDHM?
Yes, data privacy is an important issue to consider. We need to put systems in place to make sure privacy is not compromised. The fact that patients need to give consent to use their data is a step in the right direction.
