How Fortis fought COVID-19 through Resilience, Agility and Adaptability
By Nadeem Ahmed
Adapting to the new-normal through technological embracement, financial re-structuring and infection control practices have been at the helm of Fortis’s fight against COVID-19.
Fortis has led the way in the fight against COVID-19 both in terms of charitable efforts (5.9 crore donated to PM cares fund) and in the adoption of state-of-the-art technology for screening, diagnosis and treating patients. For instance, they launched an AI powered virtual assistant for digital triage on their website in May of 2020 which directly addressed the apprehensions and queries of citizens while simultaneously aiding them in deciding whether to quarantine, get tested or consult a doctor. Another highly beneficial initiative was the home isolation/care program wherein the asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients were successfully managed remotely thereby reducing the burden on tertiary centres.
Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, CEO , Fortis Group
All these initiatives translated into operational excellence and exceptional financial performance with the firm clocking a record 29.9 crore net profit in the quarter ended December 2020 as against a net loss of 76.34 crores in December of 2019. Fortis has continued its philosophy of “doing well by doing good” in 2021 by partnering with Common Services Centre, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, to deliver telemedicine services to rural idea by leveraging the 3.76 lakh CSCs across the country. What is to follow provides a snapshot of the journey thus far, learnings and way forward for Fortis.
In a year where the entire healthcare industry was under turmoil, Fortis is one of those healthcare brands that rose to the challenge and led the fight against COVID-19 from the frontline. Regardless of the obstacles faced, the organisation has shown agility and people/patient first approach in taking hard but necessary business decisions. The speed with which they have adopted new technologies or aligned their workforce towards to new modalities of care delivery clearly reflects the sound leadership team at the helm and resonance of the firm’s values amongst employees at ever organizational level.
Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, CEO of Fortis Group, answers 8 burning questions which comprehensively portray the journey, learnings and way forward for Fortis.
What are the lessons (the most important) that your hospital has learned from adapting to the new norm of care delivery, implementing new technologies and incorporating new practices in 2020? How is Fortis preparing itself to better handle such a health crisis in the future?
I believe that the most important lessons that we have learnt from the pandemic are:
Harnessing technology for sustained patient care: Home care alternatives must be pursued, aided by tech-enabled systems. The potential of virtual consultations should be explored further hereon; doctors, clinics, hospitals should utilize technology and innovation for monitoring, ensuring adherence to treatments, regular health checks, report analysis, mapping of disease trends, among others.
Pandemics do not give hospitals or institutions adequate time to respond so emergency response systems need to be in place as a standard protocol. At Fortis, we learnt the importance of immediate cost re-structuring to identify areas needing greater investments and where we could cut costs. All senior management, and senior doctors voluntarily took significant pay-cuts with the objective of protecting the jobs and remuneration of our frontline staff in the organization. Extraordinary situations demand resilience, swift action, and the will to survive as a healthcare provider keeping patient-centricity as our central focus.
Considering telemedicine has received global spotlight due to COVID, how has the hospital digital infrastructure been optimized to leverage the increasing acceptability to the same?
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how digital infrastructure is critical to societal resilience and business continuity during a time of crisis, hence, Fortis Healthcare too adapted to this new normal during the time.
During the lockdown last year, we initiated a massive patient education program and the hospital staff got in touch with the existing patients to ensure that they are adhering to the treatments and that their check-ups could be done virtually.
We invested in additional technology support so that teams could connect with one another through tele-consultation or video-consults through digital platforms. On an average, 370 e-consults were conducted daily with over 700 doctors fielding 8000 + calls across 28 hospitals of the Fortis network. We also procured Video Laryngoscopes for the protection of our clinical personnel. In addition, robots were deployed for screening and disinfection purposes.
How did the pandemic affect Fortis' triple bottom line in the beginning? What steps were taken to recover from the same? How can such adverse impacts be mitigated in the future?
While footfalls dipping to almost 15-20% in Q1, we initiated immediate measures to sustain patient care through e-consults, continue with essential services and use technology to the maximum to streamline all our units.
We focused on overall operational performance; there was complete organizational realignment to create a more direct working relationship between the center and hospital branch units. To optimize costs, third party contracts were renegotiated, new doctor-patient engagement models were tested and adopted, and higher output was sought from the diagnostic arm of the business.
We rationalized our investments in network operations and made an exit from a few. With Q2 FY20 results, Fortis started to witness improved performance and Q3 saw the diagnostics business showing a stable performance.
What changes do you foresee and plan to implement with regards to the healthcare delivery business model?
On the operational side, scale and size are not the only consideration, and we are investing in high-performing facilities in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi/NCR and enabling the transformation of under-performing but high potential facilities. This is the core of our new growth strategy.
In the coming year, we will further digitize and technologically integrate our healthcare platforms, add and monitor new clinical programs, build patient trust through transparent pricing, drive cost transformation initiatives across different functions, and enhance manpower productivity through deployment of an agile, lean and de-centralized organization structure. The company plans to add capacity of another 1300 beds in their existing hospitals in next 2 to 3 years.
Enumerate 3 structural changes that you feel are vital to improving healthcare delivery in India?
The pandemic had provided us with a chance to rethink and recalibrate on the existing foundation of healthcare. Three key areas that would be vital in improving the healthcare delivery in India are:
Digital health solutions to improve access and bring in shifts in healthcare delivery models.
Increased investments in research, building and expand healthcare infrastructure across tier 2-3 geographies, addressing the shortage of medical professionals.
Public-private partnerships in the area of medical education, skilling and training and upgradation of existing primary and secondary healthcare facilities.
What role do you think the Government should play going forward with regards to regulating the healthcare ecosystem in terms of drugs, vaccines and other therapies?
It is commendable that Government is placing healthcare on high priority and the new budget 2021 is a welcome move with many additional focus areas with emphasis on a self-reliant, healthy India.
The support given by the private healthcare sector, especially at times like COVID-19 needs to be recognized more. With more than 70% of healthcare services in India and 60% of bed capacity being provided by private healthcare players, so we need to be regarded as a crucial partner in the vaccine administration, drug research and local manufacturing of essential medical equipment and drug supply.
India’s healthcare industry is also becoming more attractive for investors, so it would be encouraging if the Government supports greater FDI in the sector.
What are the measures that you are adopting in your hospital to protect against COVID beyond masking and social distancing?
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit India, we placed hygiene and disinfection practices at the forefront at all our units. A special task force was placed in all our units which focused on disinfection, sterilization, infection control, PPE, testing kits, additional ventilators, setting up of isolation wards, staff rotations, quarantines and responsible waste disposal
Today as we move to a post-pandemic phase, we are vaccinating our staff and are still continuing with the safety protocols to the maximum. There is a stringent screening procedure for everyone who visits our hospitals. Staff rotation, periodic COVID check-ups, wearing of masks and social distancing are way of life at our hospitals today.
What were some of the tech innovations that helped your organization in the battle? Is there any technology or software solution that you are looking to acquire or build in-house in the near future?
Technology was at the center when the pandemic hit, without it would have been impossible for us to function. While it is common in some industries, for the healthcare sector this was a nascent concept.
All our employees quickly ramped-up to become fully functional and were as productive as they were in office through MS Teams, Zoom, other digital platforms. A 24x7 helpline in 14 languages started fielding numerous calls from those, both employees and outsiders who are anxious, stressed, worried or depressed.
To extend our helping hand to society, we conducted Online Training sessions for counsellors as well as Online Workshops on “How one can efficiently work from home”.
Overall, there has been a functional and operational change via new applications and technology such as AI, use of robots, etc. We ensured necessary policies, processes and staff measures for smooth functioning of work, including hi-speed connectivity and secure access.