There is an article in The Washington Post about how a heart surgery cost was possibly reduced from USD $106,385 to USD $1583.
It was certainly attention grabbing. Isn’t it?
A further read actually explained how Dr. Devi Shetty, an Indian philanthropist and a cardiac surgeon, managed to reduced the heart surgery cost in India by cutting down the unnecessary expenses.
Some of the approaches include elimination ‘unnecessary’ pre-operation testing, limiting air-conditional facility to only the vital area like operating theater & ICU, inspiring a group of young entrepreneur to produce disposable surgical gowns and drapes that is 60% cheaper, reducing the cost of building an hospital and using web based logistic software instead of expensive licensed or customised software for each hospital.
This is really similar to a budget airlines ‘no frills’ approach, isn’t it?
One may argue that it is not really an apple to apple comparison on the cost of surgery. That is definitely true considering the location and the labor cost of two countries.
However, it is not deniable that if we are able to see things differently and question the status quo, new territory could be found.
Quoting Dr Shetty in his interview, “The current price of everything that you see in health care is predominantly opportunistic pricing and the outcome of inefficiency.”
“It shows that costs can be substantially contained,” said Srinath Reddy, president of the Geneva-based World Heart Federation, of Shetty’s approach. “It’s possible to deliver very high quality cardiac care at a relatively low cost.”
It’s the entrepreneur spirit in Dr. Shetty that helped making things happened, isn’t it?
While many people say it is “Impossible”, an entrepreneur would say, “I-am-possible”.
Instead of saying “cannot”, an entrepreneur would ask, “why not”?
It is also the fundamental spirit of real medical practitioner that form the seed of change – the vision to help as many people as possible and not seeing the patient as cash cow nor getting into medical field just for it’s perks or glamour.
Imagine majority of the experts and policy makers in the healthcare industry are able to see the this healthcare industry through the eyes of Dr. Shetty, it could make healthcare much much more affordable for many and still profitable for the industry. May be, what is needed here is the awakening of the ‘entrepreneurship’ in experts and policy makers.
The success story of the budget airline, Air Asia, changed the landscape of air transport industry in the region, more people are able to travel and the airline stays profitable. Lets hope for ‘Air Asia’ in the healthcare industry too. Again, entrepreneurs would say “Why Not?”
However, the best affordable healthcare is self-care and stay healthy, mind-body-emotionally. A $106,385 saving or a $1583 saving is still a good saving.
Read The Washington Posts article here too.