In a recent interview with the CEO of Wadia Hospitals, we had the opportunity to gain insights into the organization and its commitment to providing healthcare services to the underprivileged section of society. With a strong focus on pediatric care and maternity services, Wadia Hospitals have been serving the community for over nine decades. The CEO, who has over 35 years of experience in the healthcare industry, shared their journey and passion for making a positive impact on society.
The interview covered various aspects of the organization, including its services, unique offerings, challenges faced during the pandemic, and future goals. With a patient-centric approach and a dedicated team of specialists, the hospitals have earned several accreditations and recognition for their exceptional care.
The CEO highlighted the importance of technology and innovation in healthcare, emphasizing the adoption of new immersive technologies and advancements in diagnostics and treatment. They also shared their vision for the future of healthcare, foreseeing increased accessibility, affordability, and a focus on preventive healthcare.
The interview concluded with advice for aspiring healthcare professionals and a message of hope and optimism for the future of healthcare services in the country.
Q. Can you please tell us in brief about your organization?
The Wadia Hospitals comprises of two dedicated super specialty public hospitals the Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children (525 Beds) & Nowrosjee Wadia Maternity Hospital (400 Beds). The Hospitals see an influx of more than three lakh patients on an outpatient basis and more than thirty thousand patients on an inpatient basis annually. Both Hospitals serve the underprivileged section of society for more than nine decades now.
Q. Tell me about yourself and how you realized you wanted to be a healthcare provider?
Every time I think about my journey in Healthcare for the past 35 years, I get a stronger perspective into my existence and feel extremely proud about the same. My journey started with dental practice. For me, the practice was not just seeing patients but also being a teacher and mentor for so many students. Time and again I had come across several instances where I would take operational roles along with the routine practice, one such opportunity was when I was associated with Impact India Foundation for their “Hospital-on-Wheels” project to handle functionalities as a Coordinator Surgeon to set up the 1st Dental Unit on the Train, I guess this was the turning point in my life where I realized that I could reach a larger number of people and create much more impact in the society as a healthcare professional and thus got more inclined towards the management aspect of Healthcare. Also, I had always felt that though our country has so many talented doctors there was definitely a need for better healthcare management in our country, the gap was because not all non-medicos could understand healthcare that well, a doctor could definitely understand the management aspect better and hence I pursued a MHA. Though I clearly miss teaching my students and treating my patients I always make it a point in my management practice to visit the hospital patients every day and interact with them as to how we could serve them better. Over the years I have worked with many esteemed organizations, currently, I am working as the CEO of Wadia Hospitals in Mumbai for more than a decade now.
Q. Tell us about your organization’s services?
Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children is India’s first, one of the largest, and best known hospitals for Paediatric care in India established in the year 1929 which provides treatments at minimal or free of cost for the needy and underprivileged children of society. A teaching hospital of worldwide repute, this 525-bed hospital is propelled by a highly accomplished team of over 100 Paediatrics specialists. In brightly painted wards, surrounded with their favorite cartoon characters, children are treated for a wide spectrum of rare and complex conditions, in an environment that does its best to keep their spirits high. With tender care by the staff and each doctor taking a personal interest in every child’s health and wellbeing, the hospital sees its responsibility as much more than just medical treatment. Besides providing comprehensive clinical care it also offers rehabilitation and family-focused methods of promoting a healthy environment for the child, thus striving to prevent childhood diseases.
Nowrosjee Wadia Maternity Hospital specializes in offering affordable Obstetric and Gynaecological services to women across all sections of society, catering to their changing needs through different stages of their lives. The hospital does not limit its services to its patients alone. It acts as a tertiary-level referral center as well as helps Rehabilitate these women and their families by showing them methods of improving the health and sanitation around their environment and ensuring a healthy life for their whole family. With a dedicated team of over 40 specialists this 400-bed hospital, declared as an urban heritage structure, it also has a constant influx of aspiring doctors who train under some of the best specialists in not only the city but also the country.
Also, we are:
- A leading center for specialized treatment for rare and complex medical conditions
- A prestigious teaching hospital with a worldwide reputation
- State-of-the-Art Paediatric Cardiac Center
- State-of-the-Art Bone Marrow Transplant Center
- State-of-the-Art Hemat-Oncology Center
- Designated Research Center Facility
- 155 bedded NICU, One of the Largest NICUs in the world
- Nodal Center for Club Foot of Maharashtra State, India
- The only Zero Day Dialysis Center for Pediatric in Western India
- Rehabilitation Center for Multiple Disabilities and vision impairment
- Nutritional Rehabilitation Center in association with UNICEF
- Referral Center for Multi-Drug Resident (MDR) Tuberculosis (TB)
- State of the Art I.V.F (A.R.T) Center, the first in India to achieve QAI accreditation for IVF services
- Human Milk Bank
- First Hospital in India to identify the condition of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (PMIS) in COVID-19-positive children.
Q. How are you different from people working in a similar domain?
BJWHC is First Hospital in India to have achieved accreditation from the American Accreditation Commission International (AACI). Both hospitals have received NABH Accreditation, Nursing Excellence Certificate from NABH, NABL, and Accreditation for the institutional ethics committee from NABH. The Hospital has been awarded as the “Best Hospital in COVID-19 Support” by CSR Times Awards 2020, Best Hospital in COVID Response by SKOCH Awards 2020, and “The Best Sustainable Hospital by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Healthcare Excellence Award and Star Recognition. “What sets us apart is the social impact that we create.”
Q. What is your organization’s goal, and how are you planning to achieve it?
Our goal is to make Healthcare available, accessible, and affordable to all without compromising on the quality of care and increasing the scope of services for our patients, so everything they require is available under one roof.
Q. What were the challenges faced by the hospital during the pandemic? And how did you overcome them?
The global pandemic of COVID-19 had burdened the entire healthcare sector across the globe. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the healthcare sector in India was extremely substantial as we are at the forefront of it. While we concentrated on prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and containment of COVID-19 infection the situation was affecting the timely diagnosis and treatment of other chronic diseases.
With the patients facing problems in movement and fear of COVID-19 spreading across hospitals, the health condition of these patients ended up getting more severe, which in due course increased the overall burden of diseases on our healthcare system. With more focus of public hospitals on the COVID-19 situation, the low socio-economic group patients who are highly dependent of the government set-ups for all their medical requirements were getting impacted the most including the emergency acute conditions, which would in turn influence the quality of life.
We reached out to our stakeholders and like-minded organizations for financial assistance to set up isolation wards and equip them with personal protective equipment. A lot of critical equipment like ventilators was arranged promptly with support from our stakeholders in a short span of time, helping us increase capacity and save thousands of lives. We also embraced new digital modalities and workflow patterns for providing healthcare, which we will continue to adopt even after the crisis is over. We planned tactically with the correct gears and associates, to positively help the society. We adopted strategies like reallocating resources and embracing new digital modalities for providing healthcare, which continue to adopt even after the crisis is over.
Q. How do you see the future of health care?
The industry is growing as always, but with increased innovation and improvements in technology in the last few years I see the industry to be growing faster in the coming years. Also, there has been an increase in perception of health and wellness with mobile and other health gadgets, I do see a lot of scope in the preventive healthcare industry as well. With the recent advances in AI, there will be further dramatic changes in the way we look at healthcare as the patient will be more informed and care will be driven more by technology. With the increased penetration of technology, I am hoping care will be more affordable and accessible for the masses.
Q. How are new immersive technologies making a positive impact on enterprises?
The trends and innovations in medical technology are very frequent; technological innovation keeps changing the healthcare systems rapidly. We stay on top of the trends by keeping a patient-first approach. We are keen on implementing technology that aligns with our vision of providing safe and affordable care to our patients. We keep our stakeholders informed by regularly updating them with information on our website and social media, we also have very good public relations, wherein we share our success stories and new scope of services via mass media.
There is a lot of innovation in every aspect of healthcare; right from Diagnostics to the treatment of Complex conditions a lot has changed especially after the Pandemic. In our line of healthcare, we are adopting a new technology, which is backed by AI, machine learning, and digital platforms. We are in the process of setting up AI-enabled Computer Tomography Scan analysis which will help in the automatic detection of disease patterns etc. based on deep learning. We are also conducting studies that are based on AI in healthcare for innovation in diagnostics and treatment. We are using the latest innovations in 3D printing, nanotechnology, Cloud computing, robotic and laparoscopic surgeries, etc. to name a few across the various services we are offering.
Q. What is the most rewarding thing about your job/industry? Why?
We try to excel on every front and achieve the maximum for our stakeholders and the community at large. Our most rewarding thing is the hope that comes from the smile of so many children who are born and treated in our hospitals every day and we strive for the same smile in the upcoming years.
Q. What challenges do you have to overcome to get here today?
I got the opportunity to work with Wadia Hospitals in November 2012 when the Hospital was undergoing a major crisis situation; I took this as a challenge and slowly started working towards streamlining the transformation of both Hospitals. Other than the operational challenges the infrastructure of the Hospital being a heritage structure has been a challenge as well in terms of stability and expansion of services. In fact, when I had taken up the challenge both Hospitals were operational in less than one building, as the other building of Children’s Hospital had undergone structural damages in 2007-2008 and was not safe for patients. My initial mission was to get the Children’s Hospital functional and increase the scope of services with improved quality of patient care and ensure safety for all patients. Proudly I have achieved the same and we today have a fully functional Paediatric hospital.
Streamlining hospital operations in a weakened infrastructure with no financial support was the biggest hurdle. It took a great deal of strategic planning and hard work with patience to reach to the point we are at today and we are positive we will go much beyond in this journey with these Hospitals being amongst the best Hospitals in India but also in the World.
Q. What does success look like to you?
Well as we all know there are no shortcuts to success, I have always believed in building systems and implementing them to achieve the desired results. Understanding problems and being creative in solving them is something that has impacted the way I work and helped me achieve success in whatever I do. I could only attribute my success to the team I work with and of course my family without the support of the prior and understanding of the latter I won’t be as successful as I am today.
Q. What are you looking forward to accomplishing most in 2023?
We are looking forward to continuing our journey of excellence in patient care, research publications, and accreditations. We are also focusing on increasing the scope of our services with an improved focus on organ transplantation and Oncology treatments. We are also undergoing a complete transformation of our Maternity hospital with added new scope of services that will be started by the end of 2023. We are also increasing our International outreach to promote medical tourism. As a mission, we will keep trying to excel in every front and achieve the maximum for our stakeholders and the community at large.
Q. What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to people management?
Attrition and change management are some of the biggest challenges when it comes to people management. While we try our best to retain and engage talent, a lot of people are looking for newer opportunities every few years. In order to overcome this challenge we focus on employee engagement and support a lot of innovation. Being supportive to new ideas definitely encourages creative thinking in the organization and this is the only reason we have an open-door policy across all the departments where anyone can approach their problems or solutions. Further, we ensure our doctors are updated and informed with up-to-date information by way of CMEs, Knowledge Sharing Collaborations, and by attending various workshops and seminars. We ensure all stakeholders are informed by way of the website and social media. In order to ensure all new innovations ensure safety and protect the patient’s rights we train our doctors to follow the standards and regulations. We have regular audits and accreditation by bodies such as NABH, AACI, etc. who ensure compliance with various international standards in healthcare. We regularly train the doctors and staff on various healthcare standards adopted globally to keep them informed and well-connected.
Q. What are your recommendations to CEOs looking at designing their CX strategy?
The CX strategy should be driven with the goal of providing a start-to-end customer experience with a strong focus on affordability, which is a driving factor for customer satisfaction.
Q. What are some of your future endeavors?
Continuing with the current executive journey in Healthcare, I am looking forward to more leadership roles in Entrepreneurship. I am also looking forward to being a mentor and helping inspire and empower many women.
Q. What is the best advice you can give to our readers?
The ability to accept challenges and take risks, team building, and having a realistic approach to things are some of the qualities one needs to have. It is never in the blood you learn from your experiences and mistakes and masters your skill set accordingly to achieve your goals.
Q. Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
I would like to thank the team of Entrepreneur First Magazine for featuring me and wish them all the best. I am very positive and hopeful that all of us together can envisage a great future for the healthcare services in our country as we re-imagine and transform healthcare together.
