‘Technology key to quality health care delivery’

Ramesh Kurup, CEO, Hygeia, Nigeria’s leading health management organisation (HMO), in this interview with OLUSEGUN ABISOYE, discusses the leading HMO’s vision, mission and plans for expansion, among other issues. Excerpt:

It would be interesting to know how the success story of Hygeia started; kindly share this with us, as well as the company’s vision and mission.

Yes, I agree with you; when you see success you need to find out how it started. I’ll give credit for Hygeia’s success to the founders of the business. You know a couple of professors led by the eminent Professor Elebute and a Nigerian couple who were practising in the UK, who came back from the Diaspora, they were inspired to come back and improve the health sector in the country and they started working at the teaching hospital. And over time, they started Lagoon Hospital in a limited way. This was about 28 years back. The mission at that time, is one of the primary reasons we are here today as a strong brand.

At the time Lagoon Hospital started, Nigeria was already a country with very huge population. Then we had all the major brands, mainly the fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) and the food brands like Nestle, Unilever and all that had production bases in Nigeria.

The health sector regulation mandated all the manufacturing companies to ensure healthcare availability for their employees. What used to happen was that the big players like Nestle, NBC, Heineken and all that would send their employees who are sick with a sick note to the hospitals, the employees will get treated and then bring the forms back to their employers who would then pay.

But with that arrangement, there was a lot of administrative going back and forth which was not the core business of these manufacturing companies. That then brought about a need from the employers themselves which was satisfied by Lagoon Hospitals. This brought about the creation of a production that satisfied a need which takes care of the specified health needs of the employees of these companies on the payment of specific sum for the payment of each employee for a fixed period of time.

That was how the managed healthcare system in Nigeria and even West Africa took off. So I would say that the founders were not just the pioneers of Hygeia, they were the pioneers of managed healthcare system in West Africa. And I believe he (Professor Elebute) has also been honoured with one of the highest awards in Nigeria – Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON).

But the HMO system was not in place at that time but was working at a department in Lagoon Hospital. This led to growth in this area. The growth recorded was instrumental in getting the regulation passed by the National Assembly. The regulation was why the National Health Insurance Scheme Act was enacted in 1999. So you can see that it took a long, long time for that to happen as it started out in 2005 and Hygeia was registered as HMO number one! And this provides healthcare, managed health cover under the National Health Insurance Scheme.

So, it’s a pioneering effort and it was a vision; the plain vision is still the same and it states that ‘our aim is be the first choice for healthcare solution of international standard in the country’. Our mission is to provide first grade access to managed healthcare. What this means is that when the people buy into it, they are not stressed, because as you know, you are not at your best when you are stressed. This is the story behind the vision and the mission of Hygeia.

Hygeia has consistently been a dominant player in the HMO sector. W hat are the factors responsible for this?

Yes, Hygeia is HMO number one and it has remained consistently number one since inception. And I would say the reason is because of the quality we offer. But when I say quality, its not just clinical quality, it also means quality of service.

For instance, we give you a promise that we will provide you with quality of service when you visit any of our hospitals, it is our duty to ensure that what you get is not just the quality of service that we give, it must also be at the highest level as we have several hospitals within our network. And in order to maintain that relationship, we ensure that these hospitals have to walk our talk by maintaining that quality of care that we are known for, that we give the client.

So, this is the one thing we aim for: having a top quality programme of clinical standards, clinical outcomes. This is what we do in order to maintain the dominant position we have have consistently occupied. This is what we do in order to maintain the relationship we have with our partner hospitals on our network. And we still do that quality check to ensure that they still maintain that quality care that they have promised the clients.

This is one thing that we do. That’s what we have done to maintain our dominant position all along. And as you know, Lagoon Hospitals is one of our sister companies and this has helped us to be able to deliver quality and clinical outcomes.

Of course, as you know, Lagoon is the only JCI-certified hospital in Nigeria. Lagoon has been on the forefront of quality healthcare for Nigeria; Hygeia has been there all along, consistently.

Looking into the future, what are your plans to consistently remain relevant and to keep meeting the aspirations of your enrolees/clients?

You know, our focus is on quality. As we discussed earlier, our focus is to transform the operation in order to improve the experience of the enrolees both in terms of clinical outcomes as well as service delivery and the ease of being able to access health insurance. And as mentioned earlier, our vision is to be the first choice of healthcare solution of international standard in Nigeria.

We are first choice for healthcare solution in Nigeria but we are not yet of international standard. The steps to attain that standard is in the offing and it will be available in the market in the next few months. We are determined to give that level of healthcare solution to people here – standard care and cost.

Customer experience is another thing. But that will come with our focus on investment and improvement in technology. But technology in itself cannot do anything, it has to be used by skilled manpower. So, we have a very ambitious plan for our people to upgrade their skill set and build up their capability within the organisation by their training; not just one-off training, but ongoing training which is more like education.

These are the things from which the country will benefit in terms of financial access generated of international standard. So that is what we will be doing, not just in terms of staying relevant but in staying ahead of competition.

It is generally known that human capital development cannot be overlooked by any organisation that hopes to remain relevant; what efforts are you putting in place to improve the lots of your employees?

You know today at Hygeia, we have about 220 employees and they are inside and outside the country. The customers that we have, without training we cannot give them that satisfaction. You can improve technology to drive your growth, but you also have to have the people to drive that technology and even to implement them.

You are talking about providing quality of service, you are talking of technology; in order to achieve these goals, if that will be done by our people, we will have to be training the trainers. Like my own executive team, they will be trained to be managers of international standard. There is a need to improve that capability, that’s the capability of international standard. The tools that are needed to reach that international standard.

We will be building this organisation to be the employer of first choice and being the employer of first choice means hiring the right talents, training and directing them, giving them the right tools, bringing out the best of productivity from them and rewarding them.

Great brands are reputed to pay a lot of attention to CSR; could you let us into details of what Hygeia is doing in the area of giving back to the society?

You know since 2007, Hygeia has had an entity called the Hygeia Community Family Plan, which today is known as the Hygeia Community Healthcare. Through this we have been giving to orphanages, less privileged people, people in the bottom rung of the ladder. And how?

You know they cannot afford it. We get funds from international donor organisations, funding organisations, charitable organisations. We get the funds, identify groups, communities in need; like in Kwara, we have reached a 150,000 people. They cannot afford it so these funds cover up to 90 percent of their treatments.

So, after being catered for under the funding for up to two years, they are able to access the healthcare plan on their own because their economic position has improved. Today, they have no need for that but they continue under the scheme. So, Hygeia uses these means to try and give back to the society.