Nearly five-decades old, The Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI) today has established itself as one of the leading multi-speciality healthcare and research institutes in Eastern India with world-class standards of quality and service. Suyash Borar, Chief Executive Officer, CMRI speaks about the current state of the hospital and its future plans
Over the last four and half decades, CMRI has established itself as one of the leading healthcare brand in this part of the country. Now, what are your plans to take this brand forward?
The Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI) has been caring for the citizens of the eastern region, for nearly five decades now.
Established in 1969, by late BM Birla, a visionary and philanthropist, CMRI has always operated with a focus on patient, employee and physician satisfaction.
Our commitment has been to provide quality healthcare at affordable price. It is part of the CK Birla Group which has interests in diverse fields. The Group runs several charitable, educational and healthcare institutions on ‘not-for-profit’ basis, so its objective is not to make money or profits from CMRI but run it as the most efficient healthcare organisation and gain people’s trust and confidence.
Our plan includes clinical excellence, service excellence and ethical excellence. These three things would be our top most priority. A special drive would also be undertaken to improve the existing clinical and non-clinical infrastructure of the hospital.
CMRI has added and is in the process of setting up ‘Centres of Excellence’ to focus on some specialties. Elaborate on the same.
CMRI is a over 400-bed hospital, which includes 95-bed critical care units.
Our biggest strength is the highest standards of medical treatment provided by us to all sections of the society at best ‘value-for-money’. CMRI, which was the first private corporate hospital of the city, has established itself as the most advanced multi-speciality tertiary-care hospital in the city offering the most advanced medical services available.
Besides, the 12 operation theatres have been modernised to suit international standards and with the help of laminar airflow system they are protected from any kinds of infection threat.
CMRI has set up centres of excellence in major disciplines viz. gastroenterology and GI surgery, orthopaedics and joint replacement, women and child care, cosmetic and plastic surgery to bridge the demand and supply curve in these major specialties. Some of the hospitals in the city, may have these specialties but may not be at par with international standards. So, a good number of patients from the region move either to south or north for better medical care. Our centre of excellence offers best quality services at affordable price and would also attempt to reverse the flow of patients to other states.
How do you plan to spread the services of CMRI for the welfare of the masses specially the weaker section of the society in rural areas?
A major chunk of our population does not have access to quality healthcare. In order to cater to the weaker section of the population mainly in the rural areas, CMRI is exploring the possibility of accelerating the existing health programmes undertaken in collaboration with various leading organisations and NGOs.
Are you planning to set up satellite centres / tele-medicine centres in other parts of the state to serve the masses in the neighbouring areas?
We do have plans to set up tele-medicine/outreach centres in different parts of the state to meet the ever changing need of our customers stationed at different locations. These units shall mainly function as the main centre for the hospital situated at Kolkata.
You have been advocating for ‘sustainability’ and ‘green initiatives’ in the healthcare sector at different symposiums / platforms. Share your ideas in this regard?
CMRI had launched a campaign called ‘Green Hospital, Clean Hospital’ to awaken the common masses and the healthcare players about the importance of green initiatives.
These initiatives have helped us to optimise the usage of existing resources without any additional cost.
Ensuring patient safety and security is a major concern for healthcare establishments like yours. Can you elaborate CMRI’s initiatives in this respect?
Under no circumstances, CMRI will compromise on patient safety and security foray. Therefore, we have set out on a challenging journey to acquire the Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation after successfully bagging ISO, NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories), CAP (College of American Pathologist) accreditation.
How do you plan to strengthen your community service initiatives?
In order to strengthen our community service initiatives, we have conducted a couple of health related programmes in collaboration with Rotary, Lions International, CII and other bodies and NGOs for the poor and needy of our society.