Apollo Hospitals positions itself as Indian MNC

Enrolls for Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organisations certification

In its efforts to position itself as an Indian MNC in global healthcare, Apollo Hospitals is undergoing the US Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organisations (JCAHO) certification process.

The healthcare major is targeting a revenue of Rs 7 crore this fiscal from foreign patient services as compared to Rs 4.5 crore last fiscal.

Apollo is the first hospital group in the country to enroll for the JCAHO certification programme and expects to get its Delhi hospital to get the certification in the next one year.

Sangeetha Reddy, director of Apollo Hospitals, told media persons that JCAHO tests the efficiencies of equipments and other facilities and its certification involves the most stringent processes, she said.

Healthcare organisations across the world seek JCAHO accreditation as it enhances community confidence in the organisation's quality improvement efforts and expedites third-party payment.

She said that Apollo Hospitals had already spent Rs 6 crore on upgradation of facilities as per the JCAHO requirements and may spend over Rs 2 crore more on the modernisation. The Apollo group attained ISO 9002 certification and had been implementing various levels of Six Sigma for over one year.

"The Six Sigma lays stress on processes and process efficiencies and replicable processes in the healthcare organisation. Apollo had already obtained three black belts and 42 green belts and 16 more black belts are in the process of being achieved," she said.

The Six Sigma and the JCAHO certification would prove the patient-centric services of Apollo and instill confidence among the patients in the developed countries to come to India for world-class as well as cost-effective healthcare, she said.

She said that a 350-bed Apollo hospital would be operational in Bangladesh in the first-half of the next calendar year.

Apollo had already set up a 350-bed hospital in Sri Lanka and was running clinics in Dubai and Yemen, she said.

Installs first PET-CT Scan in Asia

Hyderabad today became the first city in Asia to have the PET-CT Scan, the state-of-the-art diagnostic medical imaging device which ensures a high degree of accuracy in oncology and heart disorder tests.

Apollo Hospitals here has acquired the machine at a cost of around Rs 30 crore. It has entered into a 50:50 joint venture with Gleneagles Group of Singapore to set up the machine.

Apollo Hospitals has raised debt to the tune of Rs 7.5 crore from Indian Bank to part fund its equity stake in the joint venture.

Addressing a press conference on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, Pratap C Reddy, chairman of Apollo Hospitals, said that the new machine would produce images that record the microscopic details of living tissues and life processes.

By acquiring PET-CT Scan Apollo has enhanced its oncology disease management and improved therapy planning, which would help patients lower medical costs, he said.

Each test on PET-CT scan costs around Rs 25,000 and the machine can carry out around 30 tests a day, he said.

Reddy also announced that Apollo had tied up with the University of Nebraska in the US for collaboration in stem cell research and organ transplantation.

Nissar Mandani, director of medical centre at the university, said that both organisations could exchange information, carry out research and also make use of the other's faculty for sharing and imparting knowledge.