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Creating Access to Top-Flight Services

Misael Uribe - Médica Sur
President

STORY INLINE POST

Wed, 09/06/2017 - 12:56

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Q: What is Médica Sur’s strategy to ensure growth?

A: Médica Sur’s growth stems from two points. First, we seek internal growth through the optimization of our processes. This growth must be guided by a code of ethics to ensure that we can provide quality service. Belonging to the JCI and Mayo Clinic Care Network provides us a standard; however, that is not enough because in healthcare we experience changes every day. One major change is the increase in ambulatory procedures in hospitals, which opens up new opportunities and leads us to the second priority for Médica Sur: implementing external growth through a larger investment in diagnosis. Unfortunately, in Mexico there is a lack of confidence in diagnoses and unethical practices are common. There are many opportunities in this area. We will be able to provide tools that will lead professionals to the right diagnoses and in doing so, open access to a top-flight service that is now privatized.

Q: Which values guide Médica Sur in an increasingly competitive environment?

A: We have to work in a very competitive environment, but we will never sacrifice the safety of a patient to economic profitability. In our facilities, the average stay is two days, while in public hospitals it is approximately 10 days. We are also the only hospital in Mexico that publicly reports deaths that occur in our facilities as well as infections and accidents.

Q: How are you delivering this message to the industry?

A: We created the Médica Sur Network to share our ideal of making things better in Mexico. So far, we have seven members and we have allies in Los Cabos, Queretaro, San Miguel de Allende and Merida. They pay a membership fee and we share our knowledge with them. This network allows us to build a common front, nurture better relationships with insurance companies, consolidate purchases and share expenses.

Q: What is your added value proposition regarding medical tourism?

A: Many people come to Mexico for plastic surgery but we want to provide even more services. We performed a liver transplant for a 7-month-old girl who weighed 8kg using 200 grams of her aunt’s liver. She is alive and she will recover. This is the kind of news we want other countries to hear to attract patients. More than medical tourism, what we o er is an e cient use of resources that leads to a ordable prices. A knee or hip transplant might cost US$100,000 in the US. Here it is US$40,000. We must follow the example of India, which has already become a medical tourism destination for Americans. The cultural di erence and the actual distance between India and the US are bigger than with Mexico, but India has talent and it is open to promoting it.

Q: What are Mexico’s main requirements in terms of talent?

A: We need higher academic standards. Our future generations will compete with future generations from South Korea, India and Japan, where the pressure for excellence is part of everyday life. Mexican students should demand more rigorous programs from their academic institutions to compete with the rest of the world. At Médica Sur, the requirements to get into our program are very high, so our residents are increasingly better. Only students with a GPA above 9.5 can apply and we choose only 20 percent of those. We have around 120 residents and interns and every year we admit between 30 to 40 students. We also believe that the learning experience and academic results are better when physicians work with a small group of students.

Q: What role does Médica Sur want to play in the Mexican health industry?

A: We do not want to fit into a role; we want to become an example of good processes in the national and international health industry. We want to show the industry that a health service focused on the patient is the most profitable model and that a sense of humanity and responsibility are the main drivers of return. We will also continue moving forward with technology and social developments. We are an institution, not a business.

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