Rajit Mehta who recently took charge as MD & CEO, Max Healthcare. In an interaction with M Neelam Kachhap, he outlines the company’s expansion plans and unique initiatives to increase efficiency and improve patient care
Congratulations on taking charge as the MD & CEO of Max Healthcare. How are you liking your new role?
Thanks. I have spent 14 months in this sector and I’m really loving it. Having worked in life insurance I used to feel my work there was touching people’s life. But here, now what we do impacts lives everyday. This is really different from my previous work and it’s heartening to know how small decisions we make impact patients’ lives. For example; a simple training programme for nurses can bring about change in patient care, so can the clinical pathways we follow. I find this very encouraging and humbling.
What have you achieved in the span that you have been here?
The team has been built. We are putting strong processes to monitor execution. We have hired 100 + revenue adding clinicians in the last year. We have added new facilities. We have just put execution back on track, therefore the results are there for people to see. Last year we grew about 24 per cent in terms of revenue with 50 per cent growth in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBIDTA). In FY2015, Max Healthcare had revenues of Rs 1,740 crores from over 2,000 beds across 12 hospitals in North India. as compared to Rs 1,407 crores in FY2013-14. This year, we perceive similar growth about 19 per cent in revenue and 40 per cent EBIDTA. So far the first few months have gone pretty well. If you have the right culture, the right focus, you can achieve your targets.
How is Max Healthcare positioned in the market today?
We believe that we should position ourselves as tertiary and quaternary provider over the years. At Saket, Patparganj, Shalimar Bagh, and Mohali, we are moving towards being a tertiary provider. That’s the way we want to go. Further, we want to create centres of excellence, for e.g., oncology is big for us. Actually in North India, we are bigger than Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre today, both in terms of revenue and number of oncologists. We have a huge vision for that and we want to get into disease management groups now. Similarly, in orthopaedics we have launched the Musculoskeletal Institute of Excellence in Saket which deals with joints, spine, rheumatology, pain management, chiropody, sports injury and creating centres of excellence for these areas.
Our belief is we should do more and more high-end quaternary and tertiary work. We have inherited small centres like Panchsheel that’s fast becoming a day-care centre; Gurgaon has become a surgical centre with about 70-80 beds. Inevitably, we are converting what we have inherited into some kind of specialised centres, to go the tertiary-quaternary route.
What is your plan for the next year?
We are clearer about our plans for the next year as we just had a meeting on that. We have just started to look at what should the next three years look like, work on next three years’ strategy. Our first objective is to maximise what we have to make it very efficient and build on that. In addition, we are looking at building on existing assets, create centres of excellence. We also want to look at brownfield acquisitions.
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