Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bangalore

Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital, Bangalore, known for its cardiology services, has been providing subsidised care to the needy since its inception in 2001. Today, this 1000 bedded Hospital receives almost 800 patients per day.

Achievements in the Last Year

The Hospital has the rare distinction of being associated with Ministry of Information Technology and External Affairs to be a part of mega-project, wherein the Hospital will offer tele-health and tele-education to 53 nations across the African continent under the vision of Former President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. The Hospital is also flagged with some other major achievements. It has performed Asia's first artificial heart transplant in April 2008 and other two patients were transplanted with artificial heart pump. "We are the first Hospital to do pulmonary thromboendarterectomy as a surgical treatment for chronic pulmonary embolism which was earlier considered as a non-operable condition," says Dr Nitish Shetty, COO.

USP

One of its biggest USP is subsidised cardiac surgeries for as low as Rs 60,000 for a open heart surgery. Hence, the Hospital works on the volume to generate revenues to provide affordable quality healthcare to the common masses of India and other developing nations. Adds Dr Nitish Shetty, "We are creating a large platform of healthcare to offer services to all sectors of population across India and abroad. Large volumes, in turn, would lead to volume based cost reduction in healthcare facilities without any compromise in quality."

Challenges Faced

Acquiring land to start new projects is the biggest challenge faced by Narayana Hrudayalaya. "We have enough resources to start large hospitals in any part of the country, but land acquisition is one of the greatest barriers," says Dr Devi Shetty, Chairman and MD, Narayana Hruduyalaya.

To maintain affordability factor/ subsidised healthcare without any compromise in quality due to the economic status of the nation with the rising inflation and costs of operations is also one more challenge faced by the Hospital.

Quantum of Investment

The Hospital mostly invests on medical equipment and infrastructure. "A major portion of our investment is in infrastructure and another 50 percent on high-end equipment. But, at present, IT is not a major area of our investment," says Dr Nitish Shetty.

CSR

This year the Hospital spent 50 per cent of their earnings sponsoring micro-health insurance schemes like Yeshaswini, which covers about fifty lakh people and Arogya Rakshya Yojana— a joint venture with Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon.

Expansion Plans

Along with this, we are in merger with MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital for cardiac care," Dr Nitish Shetty says.

They have taken over a Brahmanand Seva Samaj Trust's Hospital in Jamshedpur and are in the process of launching a health insurance in the city. Dr Devi Shetty informs that the Hospital is planning to start a 1400 bedded cancer hospital at Narayana Health City Bangalore. Apart from this, they are also expanding their current bed-strength to 3000-bed unit. "We are also constructing a 1000 bed heart hospital in Jaipur and building a team to role out 20,000 beds in the next five years," says Dr Devi Shetty.

In fact Narayana Hrudayala is actually thinking global. "The Hospital is creating large health city in every state capital and abroad in every country's capital. We want to build hospitals for the working class and the poor along with academic and research affiliations," says Dr Devi Shetty.