Equipment, Talent, Affordability Accelerate Expansion

Q: Hospitales MAC has undergone a rapid infrastructure expansion. What allowed Hospitales MAC to achieve such progress?

A: Hospitales MAC, founded 13 years ago in Celaya, has sustainably expanded throughout the country, achieving, two years early, our “15/15” goal of opening 15 hospitals within our first 15 years two year early. We have four hospitals under construction in Los Mochis, Queretaro, Leon and Mexico City and we have acquired land in Cancun. We are analyzing expanding to other cities through hospital acquisitions to reach 25 hospitals in the country. We are also planning a new strategic expansion of our infrastructure and equipment. 

Our success has been driven by our business model, which combines three core features: highly advanced medical equipment, well-trained medical staff and fair prices. While other hospital chains offer one or two of these features, we provide all three.

Q: What is Hospitales MAC’s differentiator versus other hospital chains in the country?

A: As a business, our main differentiator is our expansion capacity. While a large hospital chain might grow 5 percent annually, we grow about 30-40 percent. We recently raised MX$1.5 billion (US$75.46 million) on a five-year term with an Interbank Equilibrium Interest Rate (TIIE) of +2.1 percent. We are using that to pay down our higher-rate debt and to guarantee we reach our 15-hospital goal relatively easily.

We are operating on the Institutional Stock Exchange (BIVA) and plan to raise more capital by 1Q23. Moreover, we are a large employer in Mexico with about 3,000 people working in our hospitals and 1,000 at our construction sites.

Q: Why should doctors and medical professionals choose Hospitales MAC?

A: We offer doctors a high-tech environment, a vast supply of medicines to meet prescription needs and a safe, modern infrastructure. These features allow doctors to provide quality care to their patients. Our hospitals also provide doctors the ability to reach more people as our costs are competitive, which gives doctors the opportunity to provide an even better service that a patient might receive at a public hospital.

Q: What services does Hospitales MAC provide at each unit?

A: As third-level hospitals, we are able to carry out complex surgeries and some of our hospitals have additional features. In Aguascalientes and Puebla, we are building an oncology unit. Additionally, our services are available through a large number of health insurance policies. Our alliances allow us to be an option for patients with all types of policies.

Q: How is Hospitales MAC dealing with the hurdles in acquiring medical supplies caused by COVID-19?

A: At the beginning of the outbreak, we chose to protect our supply before a crisis hit Mexico. Thus, we acquired thousands of doses of essential treatments and personal protection equipment, which  allowed us to purchase supplies at regular market prices before the costs skyrocketed. Our preventive measures ensured we had enough inventory. When the peak of the pandemic passed, we placed new orders to restock our needs before prices rose again.

Q: Fully digital hospitals are the emerging trend in the sector. How is Hospitales MAC integrating technology at its facilities?

A: The pandemic accelerated telemedicine by at least 10 years but prior to this acceleration, Hospitales MAC had already implemented tools like the electronic clinical record or digital imagine interpretation centers for tomography. Moreover, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we strengthened our remote consultation services by creating “MAC at home,” a service to deliver a set of tools like oximeters to facilitate remote consultations with doctors.

We are looking forward to integrating digital tools into our work and with the support of our Strategic Planning and Innovation Department we will make the most of hospital technology.

RT: How are you promoting preventive healthcare and integral care approaches among patients?

A: Through Fundación MAC, we carry out cleft lip and palate, cataracts and heart surgeries for children with Down syndrome. As preventive healthcare is gaining in relevance, we are using the foundation to provide free nutritional consultations and to help fight diseases like obesity, hypertension and diabetes. It is key for hospitals to support these types of measures and provide free nutritional guidance to teach better eating and exercising habits. In the long-term, these actions will reduce the country’s healthcare burden, allowing for the more effective use of healthcare budgets.

Hospitales Médica Avanzada Contigo (MAC) is a rapidly expanding hospital chain with over 10 years of experience as a high-quality operator and a real estate agency that builds and rents offices, hospitals and commercial premises for medical units.