Apollo Hospitals to invest Rs 1,500 cr by 2014

Apollo Hospitals Group will invest Rs 1,500 crore for increasing the number of beds to about 11,500 by March 2014, according to the Chairman, Dr Prathap C. Reddy.
After inaugurating an oncology facility at Apollo Hospitals near here, he told pressperons that the healthcare major had added 800 beds last year in its 56 hospitals, which now have 9,000 beds.
With the opening of six new hospitals in 2012, it would have over 10,000 beds. It is also planning to add 60 new clinics to increase the same to 100 this year.
Cardiac clinic
In Gujarat, where Apollo Hospitals and Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd have a 50:50 partnership, the duo have decided to launch an additional cardiac clinic by July 2012 at an investment of Rs 15 crore. They are also considering to set up one or two more hospitals in Gujarat, he said.
The two partners are looking at setting up outpatient clinics in African countries like Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda as well.
Overseas foray
Asked about Apollo Hospitals’ overseas foray, Dr Reddy said that the Group has, after expanding its reach to Dubai, Mauritius and other places, “temporarily” decided to focus only on India. However, its super-specialty facility in Tanzania will increase the number of beds from the existing 300 to 500.
Replying to a question about the 1,300-strong Apollo Pharmacy chain, he said the Group has identified some potential investors abroad for setting up more such pharmacies in India once the FDI norms are eased by the Government.
Dr Reddy said the Group is expecting to get loans to the tune of Rs 600 crore for expansion this year. “We may also plan to add 4,000 beds next year during 2014-17.”

India is now official member of International Affiliate of the Infusion Nurses Society of US

Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru

India is now an official member of the International Affiliate of the Infusion Nurses Society of US. The formation of the Infusion Nurses Society (INS) India is expected to give a boost to the infusion care in the country. The Society is responsible for setting the standard for infusion care, by developing and disseminating standards of practice, providing professional development opportunities and quality education, advancing the specialty through evidence-based practice and research supporting professional certification and advocating for the public, in alignment with the vision and mission of The Infusion Nurses Society of US. Infusion therapy is becoming complex and it is important for the healthcare workers to be equipped with current knowledge and skills. It would now be obligatory for the nursing staff to participate in appropriate learning and practice activities to develop and upgrade their competence. “The establishments of INS-India, the guidelines are intended to help healthcare practitioners to ensure that patients receive quality healthcare,” said Rajnish Rohatgi, business director, BD Medical Surgical Systems, India. “The initiative is in line with BD’s ongoing program where our clinical advisors work with several hospitals across India to coordinate quality training for nurses and healthcare professionals,” he added. INS–India would bring innovative resources and opportunities to a wide range of healthcare professionals who are involved in the specialty practice of infusion therapy. INS is setting the standard for dedicated clinicians who seek to provide excellent infusion care across all practice settings, stated Mary Alexander, chief executive officer, Infusion Nurses Society. In an effort to provide “Safe Infusion for Safer Healthcare, the Infusion Nurses Society India teamed up with Becton Dickinson India Pvt. Ltd. and 3M India at The Oxford College of Science, Bangalore to highlight the  contemporary know-how of Infusion therapy. “We are working to provide patients high quality health care products in India. With the help of INS, we are looking forward to introduce better technology and techniques to provide improved standards for Indian healthcare industry,” stated Gautam Khanna, executive director, healthcare division, 3M India.

AADHAAR Opening Up of New Vistas in Healthcare

‘Aadhaar,’ a unique identification system for providing ID (a digital signature) to citizens, is based on the personal bio-data and biometrics (ten digit finger printing and iris scan)

The project is based on the diversified architecture of the cloud and is the first online ID of its kind in the world. 125 million people have  already been enrolled for UID and the figure is expected to grow to 600 million in the next two and a half years. According to Mr Nilekani, once completed,  Aadhaar will be the largest database anywhere in the world. AADHAAR Opening Up of New Vistas in Healthcare

EHRs-The game changers in Healthcare

The UID scheme has opened up new vistas for the healthcare sectors. Since the UIDAI implements an open-system, plug and-play approach, entrepreneurs can develop applications in numerous areas in healthcare. The medical industry could build up a database using  ‘Aadhaar’ as base for seamless use by various healthcare providers. The government and regulatory agencies have a major role in how EMRs/EHRs are developed and implemented by HCOs. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare  and bodies like National Knowledge Commission, CDAC have constituted an EHR Standards committee that is already seized of this matter.

The Government needs to enact suitable legislation and policies to encourage adoption of EMR, legally accept digital signatures, and provide guidelines to standardise records formats, nomenclature,  and communication protocols to enhance interoperability of IT applications across healthcare spectrum.

Defining Regulatory and Legal Framework

In USA Health Insurance Portability and Accessibility Act (HIPAA) addresses some of the relevant issues, a lot remains to be done in India. The government  may also educate care providers and public at large about benefits of EHR and may also mandate compliance. These EHRs can be linked to each citizen’s UHID and health data can be filed and retrieved from National Data Record System based on cloud. The issues of capturing, storage, standardisation (ICD- 0,SNOMED-CT,LOINC) and  interoperability (HL-7 version 3.0, DICOM) of health information, billing formats, authenticity, privacy and security of sensitive data, can also be ensured through laws similar to HIPAA.

The most commonly used interface standards in healthcare are Continuity of Care Record, or CCR and Continuity of Care  Document, or CCD. CCD is a joint effort of HL7 and ASTM to foster  interoperability of clinical data to allow physicians to send electronic medical information to other providers without loss of information.

Once these regulatory norms and standards are put in place, various HCOs, ISVs (independent software vendors) and stake holders shall come forward  to develop and implement EHRs. The linkage of EHRs linked to the UID of the patient  will ensure achievement of ultimate objective of ‘one EHR for each patient, accessible anywhere, anytime’.  Also, automated transactions shall create  a trail that permits medical audit thereby increasing accountability. In addition, adhering to standard treatment guidelines and clinical pathways shall  enable clinicians to practice evidence based medicine. Notwithstanding the immense benefits offered by UID linked  EHRs, the journey to their implementation is not going to be smooth. But the  gains at the end of journey are worth the efforts. The parliamentary standing committee on the matter has also expressed  some reservations on the role of UIDAI.

PE firm Advent International invests $105m in Care Hospital.

Private equity firm Advent International has picked up equity in hospital chain Care by investing $105 million. With this the healthcare services provider hopes to consolidate its position in the sector and bet big on the growth opportunities to set up more hospitals in Tier II locations.
“We believe that there is tremendous potential in the Indian healthcare market. Through this, Advent brings relevant global experience to support Care’s expansion plans in India as the hospital chain aspires to match the best international benchmarks in healthcare delivery,” said Georg Stratenwerth, managing director of Advent India PE Advisors.

For the undisclosed equity that Advent holds, it has acquired shares from some of the existing investors and injecting additional capital into the business. Post the investment, the management continues to be the same. The multi-specialty chain has presence in southern cities like Hyderabad, Vishakapatnam among others cities like Raipur, Bhubaneshwar, Nagpur and Pune.

“The partnership with Advent provides us with the required resources and support to expand our presence and reiterates our commitment in providing the best in healthcare” said Care Hospital founder B Soma Raju adding that the hospital had begun in 1997 with a 100-bed facility.

The hospital chain, which specialises in cardiac care, neurology, nephrology and general medicine, is said to be ranking 5th among all hospitals in the country in terms of number of beds and revenue. The group has a total of 1,590 beds across eleven hospitals.

Prior to Care, Advent had invested in CAMS, which is into providing of outsourced transaction processing for mutual funds and insurance along with Element-K, a corporate e-learning business acquired by SkillSoft. Advent International has globally invested in over 30 healthcare companies worldwide across a broad range of sub-sectors, including pharmaceuticals, healthcare services and medical equipment.