It's Time To Introspect, Be Patient-Friendly

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Q. What is the biggest challenge that AIIMS is facing now?

A. The biggest challenge is patient care. As AIIMS has become a well-recognized hospital over a period of time, not only nationally but internationally, we have to pay the price of being well-known in terms of huge load of patients coming to us, which has increased tremendously over the last two decades. So the challenge is to rediscover ourselves and make ourselves more patient-friendly and work on how we can handle this growing crowd of patients so that we are able to achieve a high level of patient-satisfaction. It can be in using computerization to segregate patients’ visit timings or trying to make a consolidated area to collect blood samples, or a digital portal where patients can just get their reports rather than having to go to different labs and providing good quality care despite the huge load.

Q. Any other challenges?

A. Another challenge is increasing our capabilities in research. AIIMS has been a top institute for more than 15-20 years in terms of research publications. It has to do research, which is of high quality, which has meaning in terms of patient care, which has meaning in terms of addressing medical or health issues that it is facing and be able to give answers to problems. Lastly, it is academics. We have undergraduate, postgraduate and a lot of other programmes. There are challenges with each programme. Newer devices, newer strategies and newer drugs are coming into the market. So the challenge is to have an education programme in tune with these newer developments. The courses and teaching methodology also have to change.

Q. Which are the thrust areas for research?