Smarter Ways of Handling Medical Emergencies in Smart Cities Of 2018
As India continues to move towards digitization and promising economic growth across sectors, there is an ever-increasing demand for quality and improved access to healthcare by the masses today. Healthcare has become one of India’s largest sectors due to increased investment by both public and private players with focus on wide coverage (including last mile) to urban as well as rural areas and top-notch services (mobile/ e-health). With the new age digital India vision, the future of healthcare will be intelligent, smart and based on connectivity and efficient technology.
It is estimated that with increased digital adoption, the Indian healthcare market has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 16.5 per cent and is likely to be worth $280 billion by 2020. Despite this enormous rise and importance of the health sector, the government spends less than 2 per cent of its GDP on healthcare – a figure which continues to be debated upon and criticized by non-profits and activists.
Medical Transportation is the backbone of healthcare in India. India has more than 16,000+ ambulances services running under various emergency transport systems. However, there is still a huge gap in providing quality care by the multitude of ambulance service providers including private and public funded hospitals, charities, non-profit groups, etc. In addition, the numbers are inadequate as compared to the huge number of emergency cases taking place on a daily basis in the country. Most of these services even fail to reach the emergency situations in the golden hour. While the minimum response time should be about 10- 15 minutes, many don’t even respond in an hour. The provision of equipment and facilities in the ambulances, limited knowledge of ambulance staff to address emergencies, complex system between different agencies, etc., affect the smooth implementation of the emergency and non-emergency systems in India.
A stronger ambulance infrastructure embedded with technology thus is the need of the hour. Building a well-organized ambulance infrastructure with high quality, reliable services with trained staff requires lot of structured planning and quality control. Just like our daily lives, the smarter use of technology is imperative to handle any medical transportation in smart cities to deliver EMS or NEMT. It is time to look at technology as an enabler and deploy it to have an edge over operational flow and expertise.
Beyond the infrastructure and quality care, the future of media transportation depends on the traffic management systems across Urban & Rural centres. To create a sustainable future, we need efficient and transportation technologies that reduces losses and costs. The Geospatial Technology is one such mode that could empower ambulances to reach an emergency point within 20 minutes of the call. At StanPlus, this is one of the hands-on approaches, which enables us to service 50% of Hyderabad's population within 20 minutes and 85 % of population under 30 minutes.
StanPlus today is leading the way to innovation and reforming the Indian medical transportation sector, step by step. We put the patient first and at the centre of everything we do. We will continue to achieve our vision to bridge the ecosystem gaps with a stronger and efficient ambulance infrastructure and create the largest private ambulance network in India.
StanPlus has aggregated a fleet of 300 ambulances including 6 advanced life support (ALS) ambulances that caters to 24/7 emergency and non-emergency cases in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, and 8 surrounding cities. We have collaborated with 15+ hospitals to serve 2,500+ beds. On an average, we receive over 60+ calls per city every day, with each one being answered in less than 15 seconds
While we have started to drive quality & patient care in healthcare, the day is not far when India will have an innovative model of healthcare across all geographies equipped to advanced services. India needs a healthcare structure, which is affordable, accessible, quality controlled for all strata’s of society and the journey has just begun.
