Indian Hospital Revisited from Al Jazeera

From Al Jazeera - Indian Hospital Revisited

Al Jazeera's series on Indian hospital has been most informative with regards to health care and modern affordable hospital care.

There are episodes featured here this week regarding:

1.  Dr. Rolson Sandeep who had two important patients: Rejeshawani Madival,  who was operated on her lock jaw.  The operation gave Rejeshawari new outlook in life, and improved her grades.  Dr. Rolson had to intervene in the family's desire to have her stop schooling and have her get married.  Dr Rolson visited his patient, Rejeshawani who lives 500 km away from Bengalore.  He prevailed upon her parents to let her continue studying and probably become a bank manager.

This gives new meaning to the address "Sir Doc"  Rejeshwari considers Dr. Rolson to be God.


2.  Dr. Rolson has another patient, and he considers having such patient a good "Karma", Baby Dhayan who has such gross face abnormality.  It is not just harelip problem,  there is a big space between her eyes where the nose should be.  Dr. Rolson has never done anything like this.  And he is doing a painstaking study on how to do this.

How do you serve God? Who gets well and who dies in an operation?

Rizal   |  Philippines   |  March 6, 2014

I am getting a lot of inquiries, assistance on building and running a hospital and administrators who have turned around failing hospitals.  As professor of MBAH, I am involved in teaching MBA MDs who run hospital in graduate school of business.  It is a tiring job, as one gets old.

But watching the Indian Hospital series of AJ, I am inspired.  The idea of having low cost hospitals serving the masses is keeping me challenged.

Consider this:

According to Mother Teresa, who was operated on by Dr. Shetty:

Constant interview with Dr. Shetty brings in many paying patients from around the world

From Al Jazeera  Indian hospital

Patientss from around the world, including from USA are flocking to Dr. Shetty's hospital in India.  And they are paying patients and which are good for cash flow and financial health of his hospital.  Why?   There is so much publicity and they are captured in media and at internet.

Patients are attracted by low cost and so much skills gained from operating 30 patients a day.  The MDs at the hospital are seen as more expert in what they are doing from sheer quantity of operations

Forthcoming shortage of MDs worldwide?

Angono, Rizal   |  Philippines   |  March 6, 2014

There will be shortage of doctors and health workers in the coming year.  Who sees 4 million shortage.  Dr. Shetty sees this to be double.

Training/education of MDs is a lucrative business.   MDs  position in a hospital is bidded out.  And could be as high as $500,000.00.  Dr. Shetty is against these.  He believes that MDs like, artists should be allowed to practice their trade without restriction.

Dr.  Shetty sees that training of cardio thoracic surgeon can bypass traditional general surgery training.  He does starts with a core group starting with his son and 5 others

Colonoscopy Crisis: Why are These Doctors Canceling Them?

 From Micozzi video/files

Colonoscopy is considereably cheaper in the Philippines where it costs P25t to P40t.  It is supposed for everyone over 50 yearly help control colorectal cancer that cause 30% of all deaths from cancer  Yet some doctors are cancelling them.  Why?

There is no data yet that supports that colonscopy save anyone from colon cancer.  What is the main reason?  Its the 6t to 10t cost. It is a $10 billion business  (Yet it only costs several hundred dollars in Europe.)  There are many risks attributed to colonoscopy:  bleeding, lacerations, infection from contaminated colonscopy equipment and even death

Repost from FB - From Dr. Joseph Mercola

Post by Dr. Joseph Mercola.


Institute of Medicine (originally founded by Abraham Lincoln is to be headed by Victor Dzau whose picture of pharma is that of govt, academe, private (pharma) partnership.  As an NGO, it is supposed to have noble goal of independent research on health for both private and govt sector.   Dr. Mercola sees huge conflict of interest coming into play.  They say Victor Dzau became a millionaire because of his big pharma/corporate alliances

Dr. Offit, a member of IOM is alleged to have similar conflict of interest; being in the pocket of Merck to develop a rotovirus vaccine.

Find out more:

Concept of low cost dialysis center in India - philantrophic approach

Renal transplant and dialysis is beyond the reach of most Indians.  But some private hospitals and social entrepreneurs have worked a model to make hemodialysis affordable:

Some strategies:

1.  Tax exemptions on importation of dialysis machines;

2.  Free lease of space from govt hospital.

3.  Training of non medical personnel to do hemodialysis.

4.  Support from philantrophists:

From Dr Lloyd Vincent of Narayana hospital - how can they afford at $10.00 dialysis?

From Al Jazeera

It is quite simple:  by not buying the machine but having them paid on pay per use basis lessening cap ex and lowering cost. It is a win win situation for the supplier.  With lower cost, the usage rate increases, narrowing gap between outright sale and ppu. According to Dr. Lloyd Vincent.

Their hospital plan to put 1,000 hemodialysis units under this scheme

It is again as per Dr. David Shetty, using economies of scale

Read more:

Fifty-two-year-old Dr Lloyd Vincent is the clinical director of the dialysis services at Narayana Hrudayalaya.
Like others in his field, he is faced with a growing diabetes epidemic in India - due in large part to changing lifestyles, including a decrease in the amount of physical exercise taken and an increase in the availability of junk food.
With diabetes comes a catalogue of complications, including blindness, amputation, stroke, heart disease and kidney disease.

The dialysis unit at the hospital currently handles 1,400 treatments a month, but within 12 months, the plan is to increase this to 5,000.

Vincent and Dr Shetty, the founder of the hospital, have negotiated an innovative agreement with suppliers for about 1,000 dialysis machines on a pay-per-use model, which will half the cost from $20 to about $10 per treatment.
The machines will be maintained by the manufacturers, who will earn more that way than by selling them outright - making it a win-win situation for them and the hospital, which cannot afford the upfront capital expenditure on expensive machines.

Lloyd believes that educating school children regarding health issues will go a long way and prove to be the most important step in reducing diabetes.
He has organised awareness programmes for school children in which they are taught how to measure their blood pressure and sugar levels. The children are encouraged to purchase the basic equipment required to do this so that they can keep a check on their parents' blood pressure and sugar levels at home, while simultaneously becoming aware of how such health concerns could affect their own lives in the future.

Watch six one-hour episodes of a unique obs

--

Jorge U. Saguinsin
To "be the best, do your best, expect the best" always

N.B.   The information contained herein are private and confidential in nature.  The sender does not assume any damage that may arise from improper use of the email contained. ;  especially if the information in this communication falls into the wrong hands causing damage and loss. to the company or any other parties.

Why are India medical procedures so cheap; a hemodialysis would cost just $10

From Kidney International

I learned from Indian Hospital series of Al Jazeera that hemodialysis costs only $10.00 per session.  That is vs the average in the Phil of 2,000 per session.  (or $50.00). Why is this so?  Is it because Indian physicians are willing to accept lower price/pf)

There are only 400 dialysis centers  with 1000 dialysis stations and 100 renal transplant units.  and 700 nephrologists in India

RT (renal transplants) cost $400 to $700.00

What is wrong with Phil fees/charges?   No more Hippocrates codes and sense of service?