Feature
How would healthcare
in India be changed?
Sakra World Hospital's Challenge
Sakra World Hospital, India's first Japanese-style multispecialty hospital.
How has a Japanese-style multispecialty hospital changed healthcare in India? Let’s see how SECOM has challenged.
Lovekesh Phasu
Takshasila Hospitals Operating Private Limited
COO (Chief Operating Officer)
Yuichi Nagano
Takshasila Hospitals Operating Private Limited
President (Managing Director)
India, which boasts a population of 1.38 billion making it the world's second largest population, is, on a per capita basis, one of the world’s poorest in terms of healthcare resources. The number of doctors, nurses, hospital beds, and clinics per capita is very low, making it difficult for people to receive the medical care they need when necessary, and the low average life expectancy and high neonatal mortality rate still continue to be social problems. The number of patients with cardiac and cancer diseases is also on the rise, increasing the demand for advanced medical technology.
Bengaluru, where Sakra World Hospital is located, is a large city with a population of about 12 million. Back when SECOM was considering opening the hospital, the disparity in medical care between the city and the suburbs and rural areas was very large, and people living far from the city were not able to receive adequate medical care due to the distance from the hospital. Also, even in urban areas, there were few providers of home health care services, and some people were unable to get the medical examination and treatment they needed.
The number of health care professionals is inadequate in ratio to the population,
and people lack access to health care services.
SECOM, through Secom Medical Systems Co., Ltd. (“Secom Medical Systems”) which operates the health care business in the Secom Group, opened a multispecialty hospital, Sakra World Hospital, in Bengaluru, India, together with a major Japanese trading company.
Although this was SECOM’s first overseas expansion in the health care business, SECOM has applied to this business various hospital management expertise cultivated through its hospital support business in Japan. In addition, Sakra World Hospital established a new department rendered home medical services, and is operating a Japanese-style mobile health checkup vehicle converted from a bus to provide medical care in rural areas where access to hospitals is difficult.
As the foundation of successful hospital operations is the enhancement of clinical training and the assurance of high quality and patient safety, Sakra World hospital actively invests in clinical training for medical specialists and nurses, and has established a department dedicated to medical safety management, which is uncommon in India, to provide onsite safety awareness.
Sakra World Hospital currently has about 80 residents in clinical training program. The selected residents improve themselves through observation, instruction, and discussion with senior doctors not only from own facility but also from SECOM Medical Systems’ partner hospitals and Japanese universities.
In addition, when training nurses, Sakra World Hospital introduces to local staff advanced Japanese nursing skills, such as injections, intubation, and hospitality. Excellent nurses were selected and cultivated to become trainers, who after certified, could train another staff. A positive cycle was created in which local staff are training another local staff, and there was a significant improvement in the quality of nursing care, such as tracheal intubation after the training.
Sakra World Hospital also put in order the shelves for medical inventory by adopting the Japanese concept of "kaizen," which is used to express things changing for the betterment. Such small improvements have made an overall enhancement in quality of medical care, including shorter cleaning times for patient rooms and rate of ontime discharge.
I myself joined Sakra World Hospital on October 1, 2012. When I met the first Japanese managing director who was sent by SECOM, I was convinced that I had made the right choice in choosing this workplace. Teamwork, responsibility, integrity, and respect are all the characteristics of Japanese-style management and are deeply rooted in Japanese culture.
I recognize that transparency of management and a bottom-up approach that emphasizes the voices of employees are the foundation of its operations.
I also understand that the emphasis on operation processes and constant standardization are the most important features of our hospital's operations. Not only by improving the on-site level of medical care through collaboration with many medical institutions in Japan and other countries, but also by providing us with the opportunities for short-term training from the nurses and administrative staff at SECOM partner hospitals, we are maintaining and improving the quality of health care services as well as accepting the new ideas for improvements. By allowing the staff to raise their own ideas, they are also helping to create a workplace that is comfortable for themselves to work.
The staffs are more open to different cultures here and accepts values different from their own as new ideas. Because the workplace is like a second home for the staff, the retention rate is higher than that of other hospitals. Sakra World Hospital keeps high standard of work ethics rooted in Japanese culture, including teamwork, responsibility, integrity, and mutual respect. I am proud to work at this hospital.
In the future, SECOM will create several hospitals in Bengaluru that provide advanced health care like Sakra World Hospital, and with these as its core, clinics will be opened in the suburbs and rural areas. Moreover, home medical care bases will be further expanded to form India's first seamless health care delivery system, which will provide seamless care throughout the patient's life, from neonatal and pediatric care to preventive and advanced medical care as well as home medical care. In addition, SECOM would like to develop and commercialize a new telemedicine service that utilizes ICT technology to deliver high-quality medical services not only to patients in the Bengaluru area, but also to all of India and the whole world as well.
This vision of future healthcare is very hard to realize with only the experience and expertise of Sakra World Hospital and the SECOM Group, and we believe it is essential to actively incorporate external resources through business alliances, capital participation and acquisition with companies that possess ICT technologies such as telemedicine and AI, as well as securing many talented human resources. On the other hand, however, we think we should not forget to ensure that the corporate philosophy of SECOM, such as the spirit of “Challenging for changes” and “Pursuing dignity”, permeate within the organization. Despite differences in race and culture, SECOM will continue to take on challenges together with its colleagues who share the same vision here in India.
