The blazing sun hit my face and drenched me in a humid perspiration as I walked out of Chattrapati Shivaji airport on a crisp summer morning. Mumbai – the city of dreams was going to be my home for the next two months as I set out for my internship at Apollo Hospitals of Navi Mumbai. Operations at a Hospital (Pun intended) was an unknown and unexplored territory for me. Nevertheless, I forayed into my internship with unmatched vigour and an eagerness to learn
My problem statement during the internship was to design process flow evaluations and reduce the TURN AROUND TIME (TAT) of the various process such as patient admission (normal and emergency) & discharge, OPD etc. Also, I took up various challenging initiatives such as designing process layout and standardising practices across the 56 departments of the hospital. This particular hospital, being a new setup, had all its process and procedures in a disarray. It turned out to be more of a boon than a bane for me. Not only did I get a real-time opportunity to implement all the techniques and solutions that I had devised, but also witness fruitful results in the form of reduced TAT.
I began my journey by simply devoting endless hours for minutely observing each and every aspect of the processes. Then I began to congress with various kind of employees of the organisation including doctors, nurses, technicians, folks from guest relations etc. Each conversation provided me with both new set of problems as well as new insights. Armed with these globules of knowledge, I set out in introducing changes in the process. Nothing can be more satisfying than to see your efforts bearing sweet fruits. The solutions that I devised bought down the TAT of processes magnanimously and improved the general temperament of the procedures.
The most important lesson that I learnt at my internship was that, quality should never be compromised to attain the required quantity in a service industry. An attempt to strictly control the process and maintain TAT at high optimum levels results in disgruntled staff and unsatisfied patients. The key that I discovered to this conundrum was customization. Tinkering the process to serve the patient in the best way possible proved to provide better results than following a strict regimen.
During the last stages of the internship, I made a presentation to the leadership team regarding all my findings, insights and solutions. It was gratifying to see them appreciating and applauding my efforts
In conclusion, my internship at Apollo Hospitals not only gave me a colossal exposure to the various nuances of operations at the healthcare industry but also an opportunity to interact with professionals from various fields. To add a cherry on the top to my entire experience in Mumbai were my weekend sight-seeing explorations of the city, unlimited shopping and amazing local food.