Implementing Quality & Environmental measures in Healthcare

Upasana Arora, Director – Yashoda Superspecialty Hospitals

A Healthcare Management Professional with a passion for patient safety, Upasana is the first ISQua fellow from India and has been trained at the HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL for quality and safety.

As an NABH assessor she is able to address the issues that the patient is facing in a hospital and set up measures to provide for patient safety through various tools and techniques. Also a certified Lean practitioner, she works to cut all waste, save manpower, energy and practice continuous improvement at their facility in North India.

Upasana is also an assessor for Confederation of Indian Industry’s Business Excellence Award and was a jury for national level conferences for quality related poster presentation, oral presentation etc.

She has been bestowed upon with several accolades like “Innovator in Healthcare” Award-2017 by IWLF and Indian Chamber of Commerce, Leading Women In Healthcare” during the 5th Annual WOMEN LEADERS IN INDIA, The First Indian working in India to be awarded the prestigious Fellowship of ISQua (International Society for Quality and accreditation) and many others.

All these experiences have helped her shape her organization Yashoda Hospitals in a way where patient gets a hassle free experience and best treatment in safe manner at affordable cost and with personal touch.

Team ABT reached out to her to know more about her passion and journey as a healthcare professional.

Who inspires you the most? Why?
I am highly impressed with the great personality of Swami Vivekananda who is a great inspiration for all Indians because he spread our culture and principles in the whole world. His principles of life that teach us to serve a human being is the best philosophy which has touched me and inspired me to work towards bringing a change to the lives of many people. I worship him for all that he could do in his life to make INDIA proud and created an atmosphere where youth should take the path of success with his teachings & philosophy.

What led you to choose Healthcare as a profession?
My journey with healthcare started with Yashoda hospital which was built in memory of my late mother in law late Mrs Yashoda Devi Arora. At that time there was no good hospital in my town and she was a cancer patient. This led us to decide that others should not go through the pain that she underwent and we started Yashoda Hospital in 1990.

Tell us about Yashoda Superspeciality Hospital and its reach so far
Yashoda Superspeciality Hospital is 27 years old institution located in Ghaziabad near Delhi. We have two units – one is 300+ bed strength and second is 200 bed strength equipped with all latest technology, state of art facilities. It is the 1st NABH Accredited hospital in the area.

We are proud to share that our centre is authorized by government of India for adverse drug monitoring center by Pharmacovigilence of India. We are known for affordable quality healthcare to all where we deal every one with personal touch and care.

If not healthcare, what would you be doing?
We are associated with the Vivekanand Healthcare Foundation that helps patients in hilly areas that lacks medical facilities. We regularly organize free “health mela” where recently over 2000 people were benefitted. We have also offered Cardiac surgeries , Joint replacement, MRI, CT etc for over 1600 people in the past. So if not in healthcare, I would have been an active social worker.

Tell us about your future plans
We are planning to start organ transplant, that can add to the services that we currently provide, as a one-stop solution to patients. I am promoting organ donation and to create an example, I’ve signed up for Organ Donation 5 years ago. Now I am spreading this news everywhere that one person can save eight lives so we are doing our best .

Our dream project is to open a 1000 bedded hospital only with superspeciality. As everyone knows, quality is a continuous process so everyday we are doing something new with the help of experts , checklists and policies to improve patient care and satisfaction .

Did you face any challenges? Tell us how you overcome them.
The biggest challenge was my city. I am situated in a tier two city so it was very difficult to retain best doctors and staff. But we created a workplace environment place where today professionals from even from large corporate hospitals have joined the YASHODA Family, as we proudly call ourselves.

What is your expectations from the Industry in 2017?
My expectation from the industry is to get some solution where everyone can get good healthcare as right now in India everyone is not covered for health insurance. Hope this year will bring some change where healthcare will get some relaxation and we can give our best to all.

What would you like to achieve in the coming years?
Serve humanity is my ‘Mantra’ of life so I am very lucky that I got a place where I am able to satisfy my soul as a professional and at the same time can help and serve needy also. Even now, I work in my personal capacity to save the girl child, help needy girls, and for women empowerment.