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India's Factory Model for Hospitals
Mother Teresa's cardiac surgeon, Dr. Devi Shetty, keeps a photo of her on his desk that says "Hands that serve are more sacred than lips that pray." Shetty has kept that in mind, offering heart surgeries to those who couldn't afford them, but he's doing it with a business model that would make Henry Ford proud. The doctor has transformed Indian health care by opening huge hospitals (1,000 beds, compared to 160 on average in the U.S.) that offer procedures at sharply reduced prices. At his flagship hospital, an open-heart surgery costs about $2,000, while in the U.S., the surgery would cost between $20,000 and $100,000. And counterintuitively, the quality of care has increased, in part because doctors get more practice and specialize in just one or two types of surgery. Shetty plans to open four more "health cities" around India, and one in the Cayman Islands. More than 6 million Americans are expected to go overseas for affordable health care next year.
jaydeekay
This is INCREDIBLY INTERESTING.
I very timely article.
Plantagenet
I think this is a scary development. There are very few kinds of activities that can't be "outsourced" to countries with lower wage structures then exist in the US. Everything from auto manufacturing to call centers to software engineering can be done cheaper overseas. Now even medicine is being outsourced to take advantage of cheaper foreign labor. This is exactly the kind of outsourcing that has already destroyed so many high jobs in the USA.
squiggy
We are not exactly a service oriented society though, are we? We are more the arrogant consumers without a thought to value, except of course, for our own!
drlg12
I'd go to India for the surgery. Are you kidding? Indians make great doctors (and engineers).
phanoscott
Now medicaid/medicare will only have to perform the function of providing ships to transport patients in containers(1000 per hospital destination). This will certainly lower our costs. Hold the Senate vote!
dreaday19
Very interesting. And as far as 'routine' surgeries go, this assembly line system seems like it could be a very smart and affordable way to go. It doesn't provide answers for internal medicine though.
gak001
I'm sure their health care is of a high quality, but there's a reason it's so hard to transfer foreign medical degrees to the US. Our doctors have an extremely standardized course of study - a doctor in Providence, RI will be able to give similar answers as a doctor in San Diego, CA to the same question. If I were in another country and needed emergency care, I'd be happy to get it, but I'd rather get my help in the US if I can help it. Or Norway. But definitely not Greece.
ashcom
When health care is a business, we get taken advantage of. When health care is a calling, we get healers.
How warped we have become. We have confused making a living with making a "killing."
oh well. It's time to heal capitalism, and return to being a democracy (democratic republic) instead of an oligarchy.
jusst my opinion
bezvodka
Yes, but those foreign doctors do not believe, as do ours, that God told them they were entitled to be very, very rich because they went to medical school.
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