Connect with us on ehealthmagazine @ehealthonline eHEALTH Magazine JULY 2019 11
the overall productivity. Internet of COVER STORY
Things has immense potential to
give a new high to healthcare sector.
It has numerous applications in
healthcare, from remote monitoring
to smart sensors and medical device
integration. “Infusion of technology
is not easy. The willingness to adapt
technology by all the stakeholders
is very low. Even doctors of more
than 20 years experience find it
tough to adapt to new technology.
Therefore it is very imperative
to train the staff first. We enable
them to adapt to new technology.
We have to handhold them so that
both patients and hospitals would
be benefitted,” says Col Hemraj
Parmar, Group CEO, B R Life.
Though a section of experts
vouch about the potential of these
tech-enabled solutions in laying
a strong foundation of healthcare
delivery system, they believe that
technology must be leveraged
intelligently to improve total
outcomes. Developing technology
is one aspect but challenges lie
in integration and adoption by
hospital staff to leverage it.
“Getting the right kind of people
who fit your organisation is first
requirement for smart hospital.
Then using smart technology or
using technology smartly holds
huge importance,” says Dr Dilip
Rangarajan, Medical Director,
NU Hospitals.
Technology in coherence
with other aspect of clinical care
determines overall outcome of
patient care which in turn makes a
hospital smart.PATIENT SATISFACTION IS AT
CENTRE OF SMART HOSPITAL
CONCEPT
Patient satisfaction is an important
aspect of smart hospital which
mainly revolves around quality
and affordable care. “Quality
and affordability are two factors
which decide the patient base of a
particular hospital. Patients don’t
get influenced by swanky buildings
and fancy staffs, but the kind of care
they get from the provider,” believes
Dr vijayabaskaran Sundararaju,
Executive Director, Kauvery
Hospital.
Patients want best value of their
money which makes things difficult
at times for the providers who try to
find out ways how to live up to their
expectation. One of the solutions is
to maintain a transparent approach
on every front. For an example
billing should be done against
particular service offered to patient
and so on.
Santosh Marathe, COO, Apollo
Hospitals, believes, “Affordable care
and patients’ expectation both are
subjective in nature which dependsupon what value is being offered in
lieu of money charged by providers.
Standardising cost and quality are
need of the hour.”
Human touch is another aspect
which influences patient satisfaction
level. People find it more appealing
if a hospital has good staff including
doctors and nurses.
“Quality of human touch point
is very important. Empathy plays a
pivotal role in patients’ satisfaction
which in turn influences patient
care. Empathy and kindness of the
lowest level of staff including nurses
and housekeeping employees matter
a lot,” says Dr Aloke Mullick, Group
CEO, Omni Hospitals.ENSURING BEST CARE WITH
DECENT REVENUE FOR HOSPITAL
IS CHALLENGE
In the wake of costly equipment and
other expenses on various fronts,
providers face tough task to make a
balance between quality and cost-
efficiency.
“In the wake of huge running
cost of healthcare services,
providers need to recalibrate their
cost-strategy. Providers need to
focus on innovative practices,
envisioning designing and
operationalising smart hospitals,”
says Parmar.
Guruprasad B R, Vice President,
Sparsh Group of Hospitals opines,
“Quality is proportional to cost.
Every hospital should pronounce
that they have some specific
standard of quality associated with
particular amount of cost.”
In nutshell, a smart hospital
looks for holistic way of delivery
of care. Though approaches may
vary from hospital to hospital,
the objective remains same—
providing best clinical outcome
through integrating all aspects
including technology, innovative
approaches and human resources
with minimum hassles at
operational level.