The Express Healthcare Excellence Awards into its fourth edition celebrated the contributions of leaders and pioneers in the Indian healthcare sector. Held alongside the Healthcare Senate, the awards seek to recognise the work and contributions of the private sector – to improve and set benchmarks in healthcare delivery. The awards have served as as platform for healthcare providers to showcase their innovative programmes and solutions for patient satisfaction, operational excellence, business improvement and better medical outcomes. These programmes are examples of how hospitals have achieved their goals of sustainability and profitability and helped strengthen India’s healthcare system.
The awards are majorly segregated into three main categories: Business Strategies, Operational Excellence and Social Footprint. The evening began with an address by Viveka Roychowdhury, Editor, Express Healthcare, Express Pharma and Express Diagnostics who thanked the jury members Bejon Misra, Member of the Governing Board Member, QCI and NABH, Dr KK Kalra, Ex CEO, NABH and Dr Ratna Devi, CEO and Co-founder, DakshamA for their guidance in framing the parameters for selection and curating the best projects as winners.
Roychowdhury also elaborated on how the awards are an effort by the Express Group to reward and recognise organisations who are striving to reach high patient satisfaction standards, high quality service provision while meeting sustainability and profitability. She further emphasised on how the awards can motivate even higher quality standards in hospitals and healthcare facilities in India.
The tone for the evening was set by the Chief Guest, Dr Indu Bhushan, CEO, Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. Dr Bhushan fielded questions from the audience on the problems that private players face while incorporating the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
He elucidated that the vision of Ayushman Bharat is to make healthcare accessible to all and he went on to state that the scheme wasn’t a sprint but a marathon. It would help achieve UHC for all eventually. “It is understandable that the private sector cannot effectively participate in Ayushman Bharat without facing some financial difficulties. The government is figuring out ways to help the private players adopt the scheme in a sustainable manner,” he said. He also mentioned that the government is trying to negotiate with suppliers and the pharma industry on the prices of implants, devices and medicines to bring down financial burden of the scheme on the private sector. He encouraged all in attendance to accept the national scheme as it is the future of healthcare in the country.
Bejon Misra thanked the efforts of the jury members for the awards in his address. He even urged more hospitals to participate in the awards and compete in the future. Misra further elaborated on the importance of raising and maintaining high standards of healthcare delivery. He urged organisations in attendance to join the Ayushman Bharat campaign. He concluded his address by congratulating the participants and winners. The evening drew to a close on a happy note as the winners celebrated.
Awards Category:
- Category: Best brand evolution Award
- Winner: Shalby Hospital, Ahmedabad
- Category: Best Cost effectiveness solution Award
- Winner: Vikram Hospital, Bengaluru
- Category: Best Patient Satisfaction Programme Award
- Winner 1: Vikram Hospital, Bengaluru
- Winner 2: Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Vanagaram, Chennai
- Category: Best IT enabled process Award
- Winner 1: Columbia Asia Hospital, Sarjapur Road, Bangalore
- Winner 2: Baby Memorial Hospital, I G Road, Kozhikode, Kerala
- Category: Best Patient safety practices Award
- Winner 1: Apollo Health City, Hyderabad
- Winner 2: Aster DM Healthcare, Dubai, UAE
- Category: Best CSR Initiative Award
- Winner: Aster DM Healthcare, Dubai, UAE
- Category: Best Green Hospital Award
- Winner 1: Columbia Asia Hospital, Bangalore
- Winner 2: Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Vanagaram
- Category: Best Community Initiative Award:
- Winner 1: Mercy Hospital, Kolkata
- Winner 2: Malabar Institute of Medical Science Ltd. (Aster MIMS) Calicut