SPS Apollo Hospitals Wins the FICCI National Healthcare Award for Excellence in Patient Safety

Ludhiana, September 3, 2014: SPS Apollo Hospitals, Ludhiana has won the prestigious FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) Healthcare Award for excellence in Patient Safety for its Dedicated Tracheostomy Care Nurse Programme. SPS Apollo was the country’s only private sector hospital to win this award. The FICCI Healthcare Excellence Awards aim at felicitating healthcare organizations across India for their efforts towards increased quality, patient safety and use of technology in improving healthcare delivery at large.  Over the past few years, the FICCI Awards have emerged as the definitive recognition for contribution to healthcare in the country.
These awards recognise initiatives introduced by hospitals for monitoring and improvement in the delivery of a patient – centred safe medical care. The award process included a rigorous five-stage filtering mechanism, namely, scrutinizing the information provided at first stage; short listing the hospitals based on the facts and figures provided by the interim jury; field visits to the short listed entries by an independent agency (Astron Healthcare Consultants) nominated by FICCI to validate the authenticity of the information provided in application form; presentation of application and case study to final jury. At the final level the jury score and rank each nomination and the official tabulators (Ernst & Young) collate jury votes to determine winners. The distinguished Jury for the awards included Jury Chairperson - Justice Manmohan Sarin, Former Chief Justice, High Court of J&K, Former Judge, High Court of Delhi; Former Lokayukta, NCT of Delhi. Other jury members included C K Mishra, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GoI, R K Jain, Addl. Secretary & DG (CGHS), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GoI, Prof Arun Aggarwal, Additional Director General DGHS, MoHFW& President, Delhi Medical College, Dr Narottam Puri, Chairman, NABH & Advisor (Medical), Fortis Healthcare Ltd,  Dr. K. K. Kalra, CEO, NABH, Dr Yash Paul Bhatia, MD & Chairman, Astron Healthcare, Dr GirdharGyani, DG, Association of Healthcare Providers of India and others.
Speaking to the media persons  Jugdiep Singh, Managing Director, SPS Apollo Hospitals Ludhiana said, “This prestigious award reaffirms our commitment towards patient safety and the progress made by SPS Apollo Hospitals since its inception towards providing the people of Punjab high quality and safe medical care”.
The tracheostomy care nurse program at SPS Apollo is a one of its kind initiative that ensures safe care of tracheotomised patients.  It is a 360 degree model that ensures reduction in mortality & costsand also improves outcomes for patients. Having specialised tracheostomy care nurses dedicatedly available for patient care 24x7, has taken patient safety at SPS Apollo to the next level.
Ensuring patient safety is one of the most challenging tasks for healthcare providers across the world. Proving safe medical care in a safe environment is of paramount importance in today’s scenario. Over the years SPS Apollo Hospitals, Ludhiana has been a pioneer in providing high quality and safe medical care. Through various projects, initiatives and measures, SPS Apollo has always ensured that it proactively takes measures to improve patient safety.
The tracheostomy care nurse program was also one such initiative that was taken by SPS Apollo and to win a prestigious national FICCI award and be the only hospital in the country as winner of the patient safety category is a strong testimony to SPS Apollo’s on-going journey towards patient safety.