Dr Rupali Basu, President and CEO-Eastern Region, Apollo Hospitals Group has given a new meaning to hospital management in this region. Sharing her insights with Raelene Kambli, she says that gender bias does not exist in healthcare, yet security of women working in healthcare is important
What does women empowerment mean to you?
Women empowerment has become a burning issue all over the world, including India, over the last few decades. Inequalities between men and women and discrimination against women have been age-old issues all over the world and specially in developing countries like ours.
But, with the spread of education and technology, women, both in the urban scenario and rural areas, are slowly becoming educationally and financially empowered. From working as an executive, to working in a brick kiln or heading a panchayat committee, ‘women empowerment’ has become a word pregnant with possibilities. Financial independence has led to financial security, a security which most women feel has made them more empowered. These are good signs. But we cannot be complacent as majority of the rural women are still under the realm of poverty, malnutrition and illiteracy.
Women empowerment will come only when these women get proper food, health and education. Until and unless they are educated about their rights and are financially independent, they won’t be completely empowered in India.
Do you see gender bias within the healthcare industry?
I don’t think so. There are instances of so many women doctors and managers excelling in the healthcare industry in the country today.
Is healthcare a successful career option for women? Tell us about your experiences?What does leadership mean to you?
Why not, see when I graduated in the early 1990s, I decided to pursue a course in advanced hospital management at Harvard University. At that time, health management or hospital administration was never considered as subjects for doctors. But it was a subject in the Western world. Now things have changed and today so many reputed B-Schools are offering courses in hospital administration and healthcare management. Boys as well as girls are coming in large numbers to opt for these courses. As the Indian healthcare industry is poised to grow in the coming years there would be more opportunities for young managers. And anyone who has the zeal to work hard and excel can become successful. Today, there are several instances of women excelling in the world of healthcare, be it medical professionals or healthcare managers. I always feel that the final output of whatever we do matters.
About my experiences, while studying in RG Kar Medical College – Kolkata, I realised that clinical outcomes not only depends on clinical expertise, but also on service excellence, facility management, technology and an environment which gives a feeling of ‘tender loving care’ in a healthcare set up. I found myself keener on deft management of hospitals and made the decision of selecting the unconventional field of hospital management. This needed considerable courage since in the late 80s, the concept of hospital management was nascent and qualified doctors venturing to this little-chartered territory were unheard of. But I knew what I wanted and how to get there. Today, with an experience of varied locations and increasing responsibilities I have grown both professionally and personally. It is a great honour indeed to carry the torch of such a noble profession.
In the year 2004, while I was at the helm of Wockhardt Hospitals, Kolkata, I attended a specially designed course on hospital management from Harvard Medical International, Boston, US. It gave me an opportunity to see the quality and magnitude of the best of global healthcare very closely. This experience and exposure abroad gave me an edge to think globally in terms of healthcare quality and expertise which I could eventually introduce in Kolkata and eastern region in the following years.
Later, when I joined the Apollo Hospitals Group in 2008, as the CEO of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata, my first challenge was to see us through the most coveted quality accreditation for a hospital in the world i.e., Joint Commission International of US. The entire process of preparation and implementation of JCI protocols brought a paradigm shift in our outlook and processes and has determined the success of the organisation till date. In the year 2009, Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals became the first hospital in the eastern region of the country to be accreditated by JCI and it remains the only hospital in the region to date to have done so. The JCI accreditation is valid for three years and one has to apply for reaccreditation after every three years. The audit for reaccreditation is more stringent and tough and I am very happy that we became reaccreditated twice again. Today, Apollo is a JCI-accreditated hospital. What that means is that Apollo follows the same laws, rules, standards and indicators that American hospitals have.
What are the challenges faced by you as a woman leader in the healthcare industry? How did you overcome these hurdles?
When it’s a woman on top, it becomes imperative to talk about glass ceilings and the shattering thereof and the handling of the male egos. But, I have never faced such a problem.
I feel that your personal character and your attributes are directly responsible for how you manage yourself in the professional field. If you have certain basic things in place like differentiating between good and bad, right and wrong, then you’ll be okay. My philosophy of life never changed, whatever success came my way. I have never faced any bias or any problem like men not listening to me either at Apollo or Wockhardt. I think I have said the right things, and said them in the right tone, backed by a lot of data.
How to you ensure the security of women employees at your hospital? What are the security provisions for women employees at your hospital?
Our staff are a disciplined lot and being a JCI-accredited hospital they have to adhere to a set of protocols, so we have never came across any such major issue. Besides, the HODs keep a vigil on the women staff and ensure their security. Security personnel are posted at vantage points of the hospital to ensure safety of the women staff from any untoward incidents/persons. CCTVs are also installed to maintain round-the-clock security of the women staff. We have a strict set of guidelines and policies to deal with any case of sexual harassment at the workplace. The punishment ranges from penalties to even termination of service.
What is your message to women managers in healthcare?
Healthcare is a blend of science, arts and service. The urge to render heartfelt care to restore the smile of good health in countless faces is the goal that should keep on breathing life to all the initiatives of every individual in this sector. This is possible only when one works with the noble thought of creating a world for others. “I must do something” always solves more problems than ‘something must be done.’ Any responsibility in the healthcare sector is a part of duty towards humanity, knowing fully well, how a single decision can have a far-reaching effect on vast number of people. Hence every decision should be a precision decision. I have three tips for women working in healthcare.
Intelligence: Knowledge is very important. You need to know what you are doing. You need to know your role, you also need to understand beyond the role, and how your job impacts others. Managers don’t just look into their own thing, they look into the team. You need to put in a lot of research, a lot of understanding. We call it JDJS – Job Description, Job Specification. But often, we don’t put in our own bit of knowledge to the JDJS that ben given.
Integrity: To me the right thing, the good is very important. Those should be uninfluenceable, unchangeable in life. It’s even more important in your work-life because here you are actually a part of something else. You are not just responsible for yourself, you are influencing others. So you need to be extremely focused on integrity.
Energy: You must be focused, you must put in more hours than others, you must have very high standards and you must go beyond what others are doing. Unless you do that additional bit, you won’t make a good manager. The tendency is to do a bit less than others once you become a manager. It’s very easy to sit back and let things happen, especially in Bengal. But I think it’s very important to have that bucket of extra energy so that you can do more.
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