The Indian healthcare space has endured a debilitating period that levied innumerable challenges upon every individual associated to the industry. Hospitals and healthcare service providers had to strive day in and day out to provide medical aid and care to all those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Individuals in leadership positions had to take instant decisions to prioritize the timely delivery of appropriate medical care, all the while considering the safety of their staff and employees. One can only imagine the amount of experience and expertise that was demanded from these leaders at such crucial times. One such prominent leader in the Indian healthcare space is Dr Devlina Chakravarty, the Managing Director and CEO of Artemis Hospital.
Dr Devlina started her career in 1993 as a radiologist, trained from Mumbai University. She did fellowship/preceptorship programmes from University of Berlin (Germany), UCLA (Los Angeles) and Brigham & Women Hospital, Boston in Head and Neck & Body Imaging.
She worked as senior faculty and Programme Director in Radiology in different reputed hospitals in Delhi before joining Artemis in 2007. She strongly believes in ethical practices in healthcare and quality of service.
“At Artemis, I have tried to amalgamate my best learnings of international and domestic hospitals. Few things that I have always emphasized upon is ‘ethics and transparency, ‘profits without profiteering’, and an atmosphere of friendship and ownership in the hospital,” says Dr Devlina.
Good medical outcomes, patient safety, infection control and antimicrobial resistance are something close to her heart over and above creating great working environments for doctors and all other staff, through a transparent system of management.
Personalized tertiary care with service excellence continues to be her motto. Her dream is to create the most prestigious hospital in India with cutting edge technology, best in class professionals, medical education, ethical and transparent practices.
A Benchmark of Medical Excellence
Artemis Hospital, established in 2007, is a state-of-the-art multi-speciality hospital spread across nine acres, with 400+ bed capacity, located in Gurgaon, India. Designed as one of the most advanced hospitals in India, Artemis provides a depth of expertise in the spectrum of advanced medical and surgical interventions, comprehensive mix of in-patient and out-patient services.
Artemis has put modern technology in the hands of renowned doctors from across the country and abroad to set new standards in healthcare. The medical practices and procedures followed in the hospital are research oriented and benchmarked against the best in the world. Top-notch services, in a warm, open patient centric environment, clubbed with affordability, has made Artemis one of the most revered hospitals in the country.
Artemis is a process driven Joint Commission International (JCI) and National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Service Providers (NABH) accredited hospital. It aims to deliver world class services to patients and develop, apply, evaluate, and share new technology for the benefit of people.
The hospital’s vision is to create an Integrated World Class Healthcare System, Fostering, Protecting, Sustaining, and Restoring Health through Best in Class Medical Practices and Cutting Edge Technology developed through in depth Research carried out by the World’s Best Scientific Minds.
Speaking about the technological aspects of the hospital, Dr Devlina says, “At Artemis, investing and adopting new technologies is one of our prime focus which is also evident from our vision statement. We were awarded ‘Best technology driven Hospital’ in 2007, the year we started operations. Post that, we received several awards like Indian Healthcare Excellence Award, Best IT enabled hospital award, Healthcare HR Excellence Award, Most Trusted Healthcare Award, Best Hospital in Quality Treatment – State Health Award and so on, for our continuous innovation and adoption of newer technologies. We aspire to remain as front runners when it comes to technology in healthcare.”
Overcoming Adversities
We asked Dr Devlina her opinion on the impact of the current pandemic on the Indian healthcare sector and efforts the team at Artemis Hospital took to sustain operations and ensure safety of employees, to which she said, “COVID-19 had a huge impact on the private healthcare sector. There has been a significant drop in both in-patient and out-patient footfalls for private hospital. Private healthcare sectors had a challenge paying salaries on one hand and keeping its staff motivated to treat COVID-19 patients on the other hand. But what we saw was that the call of duty was greater than the monetary woes. Doctors, nurses, paramedics and others got together risking their own wellbeing to fight this deadly disease.”
“At the very early outbreak of the pandemic, we created an entire COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which had department specific as well as general hospital protocols to ensure safety of our patients and staff. This was followed by in person briefing of the frontline workers to ensure safety for all. Regular surface cleaning, social distancing, masks, and hand sanitizers were used. A separate emergency room, a separate wing with dedicated lift for COVID-19 patients was created in no time to prevent cross infection,” she adds.
Opinions that Matter.
Dr Devlina believes that there exists a divide between the public and private sector hospitals and she wishes to eradicate the same. She expresses that during the COVID-19 pandemic, all doctors worked shoulder to shoulder to save lives and make the country proud, notwithstanding whether they came from government or private hospitals. This has been a great learning and we need to create the opportunities where both the sectors partner in a win-win situation for the people of India.
Dr Devlina also advices the budding entrepreneurs who wish to enter the healthcare space, saying, “there are some multiple variables, challenges, ever rising costs, growing competitions in a field that deals with ‘life and death’. As long as one has a good background understanding, greet resistance, and sincerely wants to make a difference in patient care, success will be easy.”
Voyaging towards a Bright Future
“The future is bright for Indian Healthcare sector. COVID-19 has taught us how to streamline operations and keep costs low, which will be a long term learning for this industry and will improve its bottom line,” Dr Devlina says.
Moreover, she believes, use of technology will improve the reach of hospitals. The way the pandemic has been handled by the Indian hospitals with motivated healthcare staff, low death rates, quick recovery amongst other things, will further enhance the picture of Indian healthcare overseas, making India the destination of choice for Medical Value Travel.
She expresses that India is now one of the first countries to not only start COVID-19 vaccinations but to also engage in helping neighbouring countries with indigenously produced vaccines. The goodwill and the confidence achieved is phenomenal which will only help all of us in the years to come.
Pertaining to the same future, Dr Devlina envisions Artemis Hospital growing as one of the largest single location hospitals in North India. There will be multiple single specialty implants like cardiology, oncology, Women and child in Tier A & Tier B cities based on their needs. The hospital will also be taking up different overseas hospital management centers in next 5 years.
