What $60 gets you at an Indian hospital

Posted By Damjan DeNoble

Cool post by Madhu Rao , 2008 professor of the year at Albers School of Business and Economics at Seattle University, describing an Executive Diabetic Health Check at India’s Wockhardt Hospital.  Mr. Rao’s parents ‘gift’ him with this health check as a birthday surprise.  At first confused by his parents’ choice, Mr. Rao soon discovers that this check up is a lot different than anything he might have experienced before, in Seattle or elsewhere;

The Executive Diabetic Check is a medical experience unlike any other I have ever had. The hospital sends a car and uniformed driver to your apartment or hotel at 7:30am to drive you to the front door of the main reception. As the doorman tips his hat, the glass doors slide open to reveal a centrally air-conditioned foyer where attendants guide you to Reception. There, you are warmly greeted by a series of attractive young women in blue and red saris who send you to be poked by phlebotomists, prodded by physiotherapists, and chided by endocrinologists (I haven’t had that many women ask me to take my shirt off since I had a cameo in Bollywood Boys Gone Wild). After a few pre-prandial blood draws, you are sent to the upstairs cafeteria for a sumptuous breakfast, followed by one-on-one consultations with a cardiologist, a radiologist, a nutritionist, an ophthalmologist, and an astrologist (I may be confused about the last one – I met so many doctors). The whole process takes between 6-8 hours, by the end of which time, you have had every possible test performed on your person that can be done without actually cutting you open. If you’re sick, they’ll find out.

All this for the princely sum of $60.

Even though Mr. Rao points out that this sort of service is an anomaly in India, it is an example of what can be done in the Asian cost context.  If Chinese doctors figure out how to pull something like this together in Beijing and Shanghai then the Western health providers here are going to get a run for their money (unless, of course, if they start to tweek their models of health care delivery to reflect Asian cost structures).

Read the rest of Mr. Rao’s post as there are some good statistics there about the Indian health system, and there is also a quite vivid account of a mango induced injury.