Apollo Hospitals to expand footprint with hub and spoke model

Kolkata: Apollo Hospitals Ltd is actively looking at expansion with the hub and spoke model and harnessing the telemedicine technology.

"In a first of its kind initiative, Apollo Hospitals has introduced eICU, a remote ICU monitoring system in Chennai and Hyderabad hospitals.

"We are planning to introduce the same in Kolkata which will allow us to expand in smaller towns and cities of eastern region," Apollo Hospitals Group (eastern region) CEO Rupali Basu told PTI.

"The eICU system will help the Kolkata hospital to act as a hub and the telemedicine centres at districts and smaller towns will act as spoke offering intensive care," she added.

Apollo chief information officer Arvind Sivaramkrishnan said the tentative cost to implement the eICU was less than Rs 10 crore for monitoring around 500 beds in remote locations.

At present, telemedicine centres were mostly utilised as tele-consultation centres but in near future these centres could be upgraded to offer intensive care with the help of specialised doctors with live monitoring and advise by sitting at a remote location.

Apollo Group manages 8,600 beds across 50 hospitals and has 150 telemedicine centres.

"We have 28 telemedicine centres in the eastern region and once the eICU system is installed at Kolkata, we will expand rapidly in the eastern region by the hub and spoke model," Basu said.

The eICU technology allows a remote intensivist to interact with a patient at ICU and part of the care team with a high definition camera, medical data monitoring system and an Audi-Visual module for discussion with the bedside staff.