INVENTYOIVUENESS HELPS US TO STRIKE THE BALANCE BETWEEN COST, QUALITY, PRICING & RAPIDLY CHANGING CONSUMER PREFERENCES TO ACHIEVE
EXCELLENT CLINICAL OUTCOMES, FINANCIAL GROWTH, SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH OVERALL STAKEHOLDERS’ SATISFACTION
Let’s elaborate about your professional journey into healthcare since inception? and what was your rationale behind your career move?
Hailing from a middle class family of school teachers in Amravati, Maharashtra, I was groomed well by the hardships & situations to facreeagnyisctreisrisywoituhrsmile. With an encouragiinngtejrouersntey of 15 years’ extensive experience in Healthcare Management with leading Multi-speciality hospitals, where I have been instrumental in building teams and devising strategies for achieving profitability, and turning businesses aroun+d9.1-i11s-e2e69m4y6s3el4f8 as a passionate leader in the healthcare sector who has to keep learning to achieve more milestones in journey of contributions and achievements. I have been recently managing multiple roles together including as a COO of Hospital in the UAE, Head of Business Development for Hospitals, Lecturer in Healthcare Management & Economics.
Sensing increasing need for trained healthcare administrators & burning passion to serve & manage the highly complex healthcare organisations at a regional & global platform, armed with Masters in Hospital Administration in 2005-07 from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.
Selection through Campus recruitment as Management trainee in the 750 bed Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai during its initial project phase, led to exposure over the next 8 years in aspects such as Procurement, Hospital Services Planning, Project Management & Commissioning, and Support Services initially followed by Hospital Operations, Quality assurance , VIP care coordination, Business Development, Laboratory Management, Clinical Support Administration, and Medical Tourism assignments in GCC. Simultaneously I joined an Executive Education Programme in Marketing from Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIM-K), following which I wanted to gain exposure & grow in International healthcare market and in 2015 I got an opportunity in the Middle East.
The journey in UAE started with Thumbay Healthcare as an Assistant Administrative Director for a Medical facility in Sharjah followed by stints as COO at Thumbay Hospital Fujairah, Thumbay University Hospital and finally Thumbay Hospital, Ajman. In 7 years ,4 healthcare facilities with completely different demographics, teams from various nationalities and new target markets but the skill of quick adaptation encouraged to lead successfully.
In addition to achieving business results, one spearheaded the JCI Accreditations, CAP Accreditation, besides securing the Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award for the Hospital. The Strategic Plans, Balanced Score Cards & also the RADAR model of European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) were few of the structured tools helpful in achieving Business Excellence. As Chief Operating
Officer, I successfully commissioned and brought into operation the 350 bed Thumbay University Hospital in Ajman, UAE. Eventually we also developed & operated a Comprehensive Covid Unit including Covid IP Management, Covid PCR Centre, as well as a Vaccination & Awareness centre lauded by the public and the Government.
Along with recent role of COO Thumbay Hospital Ajman, one was assigned additional responsibility as Head Business Development for Hospitals. My contributions included innovative business growth strategies including preventive health campaigns such as Summer Health Festivals and the Thumbay Health Caravan helpful to create awareness & helpful in reducing disease burden. We understood that the future of marketing is in focusing more on wellness initiatives using omnichannel platforms to reach out to the consumers with optimal solutions. It is now less of competing and more about collaboration to sustain & grow.
During my career I came across many Chronic disease patients who are on dialysis & many are leading a compromised life due to Liver, Kidney, Heart failures and are succumbing due to unavailability of organs for transplant due to very low deceased organ donation rate as 0.5 per million population in India compared to 48 pmp in Spain etc.
Now I am focused to complete my ongoing PH.D. in Healthcare Management from TISS, Mumbai expected by early 2023 ; Along with my domain as Healthcare
Leader I am excited about working on improving deceased organ donation rates and developing strategies helpful in policy making & creating awareness to help thousands of patients waiting for organ transplants .
Why do you feel innovation is the key to differentiation?
With many options available, today’s consumer prefers a Hospital with par excellence offering greater value than the run-of-mill. Differentiation of services & products thus becomes very important to acquire major market share. Thus, organisations employ innovations to grow their businesses in existing markets, or, even Blue Ocean Strategy for creating entirely new markets. Some initiatives of mine have been such as Telehealth concept involving Drive-thru pharmacies, Home sample collection, and Home delivery of medicines catering to a new segment of consumers who desire to stay safe at home and still get the best medical advice/treatment. Also, the personalised CRM calls to patients asking about their health status and any help they required was a helpful innovation. Speaking at the Khaleej Times organised Middle East Digital Health Forum, one highlighted the urgent need for healthcare leaders to adopt Digital transformation and prepare strategically to implement Metaverse, Remote Patient monitoring, Virtual clinics, AI, CRM, et al., for enhancing access to healthcare for all and enjoy a competitive advantage in the market. Innovation is basic to differentiation of brand that is the core of consumer delight.
What are your contributions by way of “Leadership Inventiveness” and “Business Innovation”?
Healthcare leaders have to overcome many challenges in order to achieve results that are considered worthy benchmarks. They are required to make instant decisions depending upon what healthcare data indicates, and work cohesively with different stakeholders. We have to improvise and innovate, and this comes about through inventiveness. Inventiveness is therefore an important leadership skill that helps organisations to be more resilient, agile and capable in competitive market situations. Such skills are also necessary to build strong teams as everyone gets a platform to utilize their creativity & keep achieving excellence. An innovative concept of mine has been the Well Wishers’ stakeholders forum which helped in business growth by engaging leaders from key societal sectors such as religious and business leaders, heads of social and educational organisations, as representative voices of thousands of consumers whose feedback is vital to develop our strategies as leaders. This also includes our staff, our patients, and others. Inventiveness helps us to strike the balance between cost, quality, pricing & rapidly changing consumer preferences to achieve benchmarking clinical outcomes, financial growth, sustainability through overall stakeholders’ satisfaction. Advances in healthcare are taking place not only in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning but also in Alternative Medicine. Considering an increase in demand for wellness, mental-health, personalised care, Longevity, Integrated Healthcare System through patient centric models. Inventiveness is linked to creativity and my hobbies of writing poems, singing, playing the guitar help to enhance just that.
Do you stand by the fact that a strong team is important for a brand to grow?
Michael Jordan said: "While talent wins games, teamwork and intelligence win championships." Building and retaining a strong team is vital to grow and sustain brands and organisations. Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality and role of leaders is to align their teams to a vision, and set strategic goals and values. These values must be reflected at every touch point of patient journey in order to achieve the benchmarking Net Promoters Score (NPS).
Accordingly, I have always encouraged and facilitated members of my team, subordinates and colleagues to pursue Management programmes in order to qualify for the next level of leadership. My journey as a leader has been encouraging and I look forward to contributing widely through various platforms. Continually imbibing from mentors, healthcare leaders and visionaries, I share what I learn from them to students as budding healthcare leaders. I salute to all Healthcare workers and highly thankful to the Almighty, my family, KDAH Management, Thumbay Group and all those who encourage me to do better and better for society.