Over a cocktail dinner with friends, I found myself revisiting my consulting journey since I began HOSMAC and the question popped up: What was the most important learning I have had in the past 15 years? Well, I had never thought about it that way and took me a while to answer but suddenly, I had it. There could, in fact, be no other answer: the importance of good project management in setting up a hospital. 

You will be surprised to know that the FIRST hospital we designed as a hospital consultancy firm was Asian Heart Institute – Mumbai and I must express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Ramakanta Panda to bet on me and HOSMAC.  Not only did he inspire and encourage us to design a 400,000 sq. ft. hospital in the heart of Mumbai city, but also coaxed us to undertake Project Management Services for the building construction.  For me, this was start of virtual nightmare for the next 20 months, where, I was called upon to chair Construction Management meetings, which were almost Greek and Latin for medical doctors. I may have aged the fastest in those 20 months…..Dr. Panda’s ‘less’ carrot and ‘more’ stick approach worked wonders for the project team, and thanks to the efforts of all concerned, the hospital was put up (from groundbreaking to taking in first patient) in a record time of 20 months flat! To make this happen, we had to hire a multinational Project Management Company (PMC) and learning the nuances of construction management. Now that was an experience of lifetime.  It was incredible to know that despite the complex engineering needs of a hospital, it could still be constructed with so much speed. Interestingly hospital buildings constitute almost 50 – 60% of the total project cost and if not done correctly, could lead to tremendous time and cost overrun, which has been the case that plagued numerous hospitals in the country. 

As a doctor, my understanding of the complexities of this dynamic was still growing, which must be the case with hundreds of fellows across the world.  Project Management is both art and science.  The art is to manage people and science is to strictly control time, cost and quality by watchful supervision and timely rectification of the project problems.  One has to manage more than 50 major vendors and building design consultants simultaneously to make this happen. Technology is a powerful tool to manage these multiple activities by means of various softwares like Primavera and Microsoft Projects.  Since Asian Heart, I have been involved in at least 20 such project management assignments and I have no hesitation in saying sound project management technique can make all the difference in terms of timely completion of hospital projects within stipulated budgets with world class quality. Not spending towards project management needs would, in my opinion, be a penny wise pound foolish approach….