KUALA LUMPUR: THE transformation of healthcare in Malaysia — through the expert combination of minimally-invasive surgeries (MIS), excellent nursing care and quick recovery in non-infectious environments — is well on track, thanks in part to the innovative approach of healthcare service providers operating here.
Columbia Asia, which has been in Malaysia for almost two decades, has changed the Malaysian healthcare landscape with 11 hospitals in operation, the latest being its Petaling Jaya hospital which opened three months ago.
Talking to Columbia Asia group chief executive officer for Southeast Asia Kelvin Tan, the philosophy of the healthcare provider becomes very clear.
“If we are measured within the private hospital industry, Columbia Asia is one of the more efficient hospitals in terms of cost because of our model and philosophy.
“Our proposition to the community is to provide efficient and effective healthcare. These are the two things that matter. Effectiveness is about the patient’s outcome because at the end of the day, you go the hospital because you want to get well and go home.”
Columbia Asia’s proposition is a simple. The company usually buys the land and builds its own hospitals, although Tan said it could also buy existing hospitals.
He said a standard Columbia Asia hospital will have 85 to 100 beds.
Tan said for the Petaling Jaya hospital, it makes sense to capitalise on MIS or laparoscopic surgeries, good nursing care and high-quality infection control so that the patient can be discharged within 24 to 48 hours.
“The idea of making patients well and sending them home is the way to manage patients. That is why we do not build big hospitals, based on our Columbia Asia model.”
This concept of empowering patients combined with advances in medicine evolved from the United States, said Tan, pointing out that many surgeries that previously required overnight stays are today done as day-care.
“This is because the surgeries are getting less invasive, more precise and less traumatic for the patient, from a recovery point of view,” he added.
Columbia Asia has also rethought the layout of the hospital so that it can operate efficiently in terms of patient care, space saving and operational costs.
Tan said Columbia Asia hospitals are never meant to be high-rise buildings. All ancillary services (X-ray, labs, pharmacy, etc) are placed in the middle of the building so that the amount of walking is minimised.
One of the most important aspects of space and cost savings is record-keeping. Tan said Columbia Asia designed its own hospital information system so that medical records and other related information can be stored in servers and quickly retrieved by admission staff as well as medical caregivers.
“We designed the hospital information system with input from consultants, doctors, radiologists, pharmacists and nurses.
“So, we have an information technology system that is dedicated to Columbia Asia and we manage all medical records electronically — from the patient’s admission at the front counter to the patient’s discharge.
“We have one of the best paperless environments from a medical management point of view.”
Another tool used to manage costs is the hospital’s medical programme (i.e. the kind of consultants it has).
Tan said the core disciplines include internal medicine, specialist physicians, paeditricians, obstetricians and gynaecologists, orthopaedic doctors, general surgeons, ear, nose and throat specialists, opthalmologists, neurologists, anaesthesiologists and radiologists.
“If you look at the main core programme, these disciplines will serve the majority of the cases in a community like Petaling Jaya.
“We think we can easily serve more than 90 per cent of the population’s needs. We don’t believe that we should be all things to all people.
“Some hospitals try to be all things to all people and that is when cost escalates and that is why they overbuild and they end up having to spend a few million ringgit to meet the A to Z of healthcare,” he added.
The healthcare provider is now looking at building more hospitals in Klang, Johor Baru and Penang.
Columbia Asia has 28 hospitals in the region, including 11 in Malaysia, with the rest spread across India, Indonesia, Vietnam and China.