STAYING CONNECTED: A foreign patient browsing the Internet at Apollo Hospital in Hyderabad on Thursday. — Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD: It's no more world class medicare that is being promised to overseas patients coming to Hyderabad. The mantra now is to provide extra facilities that make a foreigner feel at home in corporate hospitals in the twin cities.

With quality medicare being the assured one, hospital managements have turned their attention to providing additional facilities like internet connectivity in rooms, choice food items and even a translator on demand. The steady rise in number of foreigners and NRIs coming for treatment to corporate hospitals has also ushered in several quality control measures in these hospitals. Patient education, extra checks to ensure accuracy in administration of medicines and daily meetings between specialists and patients are some of the measures that were introduced to improve quality of medicare.

Brand ambassadors

Hospital representatives say though patients invariably prefer to choose the hospital based on its credentials, the add-ons being provided would certainly make them brand ambassadors for the hospital. "We may not wish that the patient should come back to us, but we certainly would want him to talk about the facilities," says the administrator of a corporate hospital.

With twin cities metamorphosing into an IT hub, connectivity is one thing every hospital seems to be promising. Apollo and the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology have wired up all their special rooms. Apollo even supplies laptops on demand. Yashoda which provided the facility only in suites now has plans to extend it to all special rooms.

Westernised way

The add-ons do not stop here. In Apollo, foreigners are treated to their choice food within limits prescribed by the dietician. So also in Global hospital. Apollo, which gets many foreign patients, also has a facility of picking them up from the airport or railway station to bring them to the hospital.

"But where we lag behind is at the tertiary care level. Foreigners expect polite talk and expect a response when they thank the para-medical staff. Our staff generally would maintain a stony silence, which could put off a foreigner," says Dr. K. Ravindranath, MD of Global hospitals.

"We have institutionalised a system where every patient is given the exact dose of medicine and the correct medicine. That's more crucial," says Dr. K. Hari Prasad, CEO of Apollo Hospitals.

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