Posted on 11/20/2009 7:45:10 PM PST by Steelfish
NOVEMBER 21, 2009
The Henry Ford of Heart Surgery
In India, a Factory Model for Hospitals Is Cutting Costs and Yielding GEETA ANAND.
BANGALORE -- Hair tucked into a surgical cap, eyes hidden behind thick-framed magnifying glasses, Devi Shetty leans over the sawed open chest of an 11-year-old boy, using bright blue thread to sew an artificial aorta onto his stopped heart.
As Dr. Shetty pulls the thread tight with scissors, an assistant reads aloud a proposed agreement for him to build a new hospital in the Cayman Islands that would primarily serve Americans in search of lower-cost medical care. The agreement is inked a few days later, pending approval of the Cayman parliament.
Dr. Shetty, who entered the limelight in the early 1990s as Mother Teresa's cardiac surgeon, offers cutting-edge medical care in India at a fraction of what it costs elsewhere in the world. His flagship heart hospital charges $2,000, on average, for open-heart surgery, compared with hospitals in the U.S. that are paid between $20,000 and $100,000, depending on the complexity of the surgery.
The approach has transformed health care in India through a simple premise that works in other industries: economies of scale. By driving huge volumes, even of procedures as sophisticated, delicate and dangerous as heart surgery, Dr. Shetty has managed to drive down the cost of health care in his nation of one billion.
His model offers insights for countries worldwide that are struggling with soaring medical costs, including the U.S. as it debates major health-care overhaul.
"Japanese companies reinvented the process of making cars. That's what we're doing in health care," Dr. Shetty says. "What health care needs is process innovation, not product innovation."
At his flagship, 1,000-bed Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital, surgeons operate at a capacity virtually unheard of in the U.S., ..
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
3174 CABG heart surgeries for 42 surgeons in 2008 means 74 heart surgeries per surgeon per year. That ain’t no great shakes...we got one heart surgeon here in Mid-MO and do about 100 per year.
Not to mention, the parameters as to WHEN cardiac surgery may be warranted, vice percutaneous angioplasty/ stenting may be worlds different between India and the US.
There is a LOT to consider with this article when extrapolating data.
BTW, what is the average wage for a support person in India...like an RN, OR tech etc? And, what exactly is the cost of living in India? I really don’t know.
Cheap is a understatement
I think you nailed it.
Lets see, air fare, hotel stay, 2 weeks of curried rice dishes, and the surgery, all for under 5000 USD?
I know where I would go. And how to get the procedure paid for by my insurance to boot.
You have to admire the cost cutting while still maintaining quality.
Support people, about 1/10th the price as in the US. Cost of living is about 1/20th. LOW costs...
no JCAHO to bottle up the works....
How do you get the procedure paid for by your insurance?
That will cost you a consultation fee.
No smiley face? Where’s your fee schedule?
My doctor is from India and she was wearing a pretty top when I went in earlier this month. I commented on it and she said that she buys them for $10-$15 in India and over here they sell for $60-$115.
I read the whole story. Fascinating! This man is saving many lives. God bless him.
My doctor is from India and went to med school there...as did her husband.
Check your Freep Mail.
Just amazing. I had a quadruple bypass on January 29, 2009.
On close inspection of the bill there was astonishing costs for all the meds and the disposables used. Total bill was 89,000 including the doctor. I might just as well have gone to India for the procedure. I was only in the hospital for four days. An amazing 22,000 per day. Ugly and really dumb nurses too that made lots of errors in dosages etc.
Yeah but how can you leave the country for a medical procedure without getting Obama’s permission ?
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