Portea Medical forays into specialised and critical care services

Critical care in the hospital ICU can cost anywhere between ₹ 30,000 to ₹ 50,000 per day

Portea, India’s leading consumer healthcare brand, has expanded its services to include a high-quality and comprehensive range of specialised homecare called  Portea Intensive and Specialised Care, the offerings include critical care at home, respiratory services (home ventilation), sleep apnea care, palliative care, cancer support services, post-trauma/accident care, and specialised rehab services (including pulmonary, neuro, and cardiac rehabilitation; speech therapy). The suite of services also includes end of life care for terminally ill patients.

Critical care in the hospital ICU can cost anywhere between ₹ 30,000 to ₹ 50,000 per day. The same services offered at home will cost between ₹ 6,500 to ₹ 12,000 per day, almost 75 per cent less. Continuing critical care at home also has other advantages including an environment with reduced noise; better sleep; open visiting hours; easier access to personal belongings, and reduced infections, etc. The psychological benefits of healing in a familiar environment can also not be overemphasised. Intensive care services at home offer tremendous prospects for patients, family members, and the health care staff alike.

The range of services offered will help offer a better environment for recovery, avoid hospital-acquired infections, and reduce costs.

The services are currently provided in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Chenna.

Speaking about this, Meena Ganesh, MD and CEO, Portea Medical, said, “Over the last five years, while serving our nursing care patients, we have received many requests from families for additional services. These included round-the-clock condition monitoring, provision of medical devices, and medical supervision. The foray into critical care and specialised services, therefore, was an obvious next step for us to address all this rising demand with a robust offering. We are also proud to have on board Dr Vishal Sehgal, who has done some pioneering work in the field of critical and specialty home care. With an experienced team in place, we’re all set to cater to the growing demand for advanced patient care at home. ”

Portea has currently introduced these services in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Chennai. The new offering will be supported by cutting-edge healthcare devices and patient monitoring systems developed in consultation with India’s leading doctors and hospitals. All the services will be backed by Portea’s connected care platform, making remote monitoring possible and driving availability of hospital-like care at home.

Adding his views,  Dr Vishal Sehgal, Country Head, Portea Intensive and Specialty Homecare, said, “After having worked in the areas of critical and specialty home care for about two years, it was time to replicate and expand this portfolio to other parts of India. The chance to head Portea’s new service line thus came at the most opportune moment. This was further fueled by the fact that Portea being the largest home healthcare provider in India was willing to invest in critical and specialty home care in a big way and take it to the next level. The time is upon us when hospitals will only be a place for diagnosis, surgeries, and more acute care. With services like ours, chronic disease management can be undertaken at home efficiently and would lead to better clinical outcomes, cost-effective treatment, and improved quality of life.”

Portea’s Critical Care encompasses customised care plans in consultation with the treating physician; detailed clinical assessment of the patient; regular clinical audits; presence of highly trained and expert ICU care providers; best in class devices backed by next-gen tech-apps; remote patient support/monitoring; and 24×7 clinical supervision by ICU doctors. Apart from the current set of services, Portea will soon also branch them out to include home hemodialysis and home chemotherapy; and remote monitoring and management of chronic diseases.

Apart from being a leader in the home healthcare space, Portea is currently the one-stop-shop for all clinical needs of a patient at home. The company covers everything from lab  services, pharma  delivery, and equipment/devices  rentals and sales to medical manpower  deployment  at the patients’  home.  Since inception, Portea has completed more than 2.5 million patient visits across 16 cities in India including Bangalore, NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Jaipur, and Indore. The company manages ~120,000+ patient visits each month and works with more than 50 leading hospital partners, 15 pharma majors, and leading insurance companies in India.