Effective Communication Improves Efficiency in Operating Rooms

Q: What are the main challenges of competing in the market for operating rooms?
A: The main priority is the patient’s safety and well-being. This means always having sanitized equipment and allowing the doctor to access as much information about the patient as possible. Ensuring all this information is synchronized and updated in real time is very important. We put significant emphasis on creating a protocol and a coded language to feed our system with information that the doctor and operating room staff can control. This increases efficiency during the procedures, given that no unnecessary actions are taken due to misunderstandings.

Q: What differentiates Dräger México from its local and international competitors?
A: Since 1889, we have specialized in acute care and now offer integrated solutions that support our customers to improve clinical outcomes through constant innovation. Regarding client relations, we provide staff training and equipment maintenance to ensure our solutions are used to the best of their capabilities. Our goal is to do our training state by state; we want to talk to all governments and determine the particular needs of each. After that, we can find a way to bring most of the doctors in for special days of training, including lectures and demonstrations.
The medical sector in Mexico is focused on saving the patient. However, we are taking this one step further by creating solutions that help the patient to recover faster. Our technology’s success rate also depends on the skills of health professionals, which is the main reason behind the training we offer. We are even holding events at universities to work directly with medical students. Our goal is to integrate these events into academic plans, which could have a long-lasting impact on the health sector in Mexico.

Q: What are Dräger México’s main goals for the coming years?
A: We are focusing to increase our share in the private sector and have redefined our priorities with key accounts to meet their needs. We also want to work with small and medium-sized hospitals for which we have developed financial solutions that will help them to access our solutions. In addition, we are working on offering diplomas or certifications to medical professionals who receive our training. The idea is to strengthen hospital teams. Lastly, we are working on integrating all our services into one system. We want to improve communication between different medical teams and equipment through a central station that can bring together all data. We have been working with 50 companies from all over the world to develop a common language that allows different equipment brands to communicate effortlessly. The protocol has already been approved and Dräger intends to launch its first product in 2019.  

Q: What do you think Mexico needs to become a hub of medical device manufacturing and capitalize its presence in the American region?
A: Mexico is already a very important player in the medical equipment industry. It moves between eighth and 10th place worldwide as a global exporter and more than 150,000 people work in this industry. Exporting more than 90 percent of its products to the US, obviously that means that the country is not looking at the rest of the Americas and perhaps that is an aspect to correct if Mexico wants to be relevant in Latin America.

Q: How does Dräger México provide a solid platform of innovation that helps to anticipate the needs and to exceed the expectations of its customers?
A: Being a family business has allowed Dräger to allocate an important part of its profits, much more than our competitors, to R&D issues. We are essentially an innovative company and that has led us to always be at the forefront of technology. Our focus is on really understanding the needs of our customers, their pains and how we, as Dräger, can help them to solve those problems.