Dr.Minnie Bodhanwala:CEO,Wadia Hospital
Brief us about you and your journey since the beginning of your career.
My journey started with dental practice. For me practice was not just seeing patients but also being a teacher and mentor for so many students. Time and again I had come across several instances where I would take operational roles along with the routine practice, one such opportunity was when I was associated with Impact India Foundation for their “Hospital-on-Wheels” project to handle functionalities as a Coordinator Surgeon to set up the 1st Dental Unit on the Train, I guess this was the turning point in my life where I realized that I could reach a larger number of people and create much more impact in the society as a healthcare professional and thus got more inclined towards the management aspect of Healthcare. Also I had always felt that though our country has so many talented doctors there was definitely a need for better healthcare management in our country, the gap was because not all non-medicos could understand healthcare that well, a doctor could definitely understand the management aspect better and hence I pursued a MHA. Though I dearly miss teaching my students and treating my patients I always make it a point in my management practice to visit the hospital patients every day and interact with them as to how we could serve them better. Over the years I have worked with many esteemed organizations, currently I am working as the CEO of Wadia Hospitals in Mumbai for over 11 years now
2. How do you describe yourself in one/two word?Who has been your guide, source of inspiration, support?
I am very optimistic and a resilient person.Our Chairman Mr. NusliWadia has been a great source ofinspiration in my life. The strong insight of our Chairman’s vision towards the goal and driving us by mentoring new systems and techniques to be adopted in spite of challenges and standing with the team as one during crisis situation has definitely inspired me a lot. With support and strategic guidance I have been able to achieve major transformations for the organizations.
3. What do you like most about your job?State us about your passions, mission, and goals. What acts as a motivation tool for you?
It’s the happiness of patients and their family is what I like the most about this job. The mission and goalsare simple, providing quality and affordable healthcare for all. If we are able toget the basic things right everything else will fall in place.
4. Kindly describe in brief about your Hospital and its services
The Wadia Hospitals comprise of two dedicated super specialty hospitals the BaiJerbaiWadia Hospital for Children- BJWHC (525 Beds) &NowrosjeeWadia Maternity Hospital- NWMH (350 Beds). Our BJWHC provides exclusive specialties for Pediatrics and the NWMH provides exclusive specialties for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Neonatology. The Hospitals see an influx of more than three lakh patients on an outpatient basis and more than thirty thousand patients on an inpatient basis annually. Both Hospitals serve the underprivileged section of the society for more than nine decades now.
- State us your major achievements
During my journey at Wadia Hospitals, I have travelled from strength to strength, adding several feathers to the cap- some key ones are: -
i. BJWHC has a centre of excellence for Paediatric Cardiology, where more than 3000 children have benefitted in a short span of over three years. The hospital aims to zero the list of children in Maharashtra who are waiting for a Paediatric Surgery.
ii. Centres of excellence in the field of Paediatric Neurology, Paediatric Neurosurgery, Paediatric Surgery, Nephrology, Hemat-Oncology, Bone Marrow Transplant and many more.
iii. BJWHC has one of the largest NICU’s in the world with 155 beds.
iv. BJWHC is a nodal centre for Club Foot treatment in Maharashtra, India and also the only centre in Western India that provides a zero day dialysis for newborn.
v. In partnership with UNICEF, BJWHC is addressing child survival and development with equity among the most deprived urban poor communities of Mumbai by providing a state of the art advanced Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre for children with Severe Acute Malnutrition
vi. BJWHC has also conducted numerous Health camps for Children. Every child who enters BJWHC is screened for nutrition status; this is a first of its kind program in India to tackle malnutrition. Hospitals are also providing support for capacity building, disaster management, screening and treatment of health conditions and knowledge management for Government and non-profit organizations
vii. There are also dedicated centers for Tuberculosis and HIV, which undertake extensive research activities. The hospital also has 24/7 Cath lab and state of the art diagnostic facilities to support the patients and provide all services under one roof. The hospital is also planning a MRI setup that will be functional soon.
viii. Human Milk Bank has has also been established at NWMH and is catering to newborn and infants and thus helping the vulnerable children survive. State of the Art I.V.F (A.R.T) Center has been established to provide an affordable chance for the lower income families. The I.V.F (A.R.T) Center at NWMH is the first in India to achieve QAI accreditation for IVF services
ix. Every year the entire community comes together to participate in the Little Hearts Marathon (LHM), which is a social event to engage the community and help spread awareness for prevention of cardiac diseases in children. More than hundred thousand children have supported the cause of LHM in 6 editions.
x. BJWHC is First Hospital in India to have achieved the accreditation from the American Accreditation Commission International (AACI). The hospitals have received NABH Accreditation, Nursing Excellence Certificate from NABH, NABL and Accreditation for institutional ethics committee from NABH.
xi. The hospitals have received over 50 prestigious international and national awards for quality care and healthcare services.
xii. First Hospital in India to identify the condition of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (PMIS) in COVID-19 positive children.
6. State us about the most memorable and remarkable moments of your life.
Saving of the conjoined Twins - “Riddhi Siddhi” in 2013 who are still with the hospital and being taken very good care by us is the most memorable and remarkable moment in my life.
7. Kindly tell us about the challenges you took and the risk associated with it and how did you overcome them?
Streamlining the hospital operations in weakened infrastructure with a financial crisis was the biggest hurdle. It took a great deal of strategic planning and hard work with patience in order to reach the point we are at today and we are very positive we will go much ahead in this journey with these Hospitals, not only being amongst the best Hospitals in India but also in the World.
- Share your point of view on the current scenario of the industry and its future.
With so much of increasing complexity in the health needs of our people the field of healthcare management becomes more and more challenging each day. Also what makes this profession more challenging is a multitude of stakeholders and activities that are involved in running a healthcare organization like physicians and nurses, highly trained employees, ensuring various policies and procedures are complied as per norms, managing supplies, equipment’s and keeping pace with constantly evolving healthcare technology etc. Being a people oriented field it is always necessary to maintain that balance between caring and the sustainability of the organization
9. What would you advise to the budding Healthcare Leaders?
Working in healthcare is a privilege that we must continue to earn every day and build on the success of many predecessors. My message to the budding Healthcare leaders is that each one of us should focus on adding sustainable value to the health care delivery system. In addition to exceptional growth, we should look forward to sharing more stories of operational success & its impact on the community at large. We should closely work with market-led functions for the medical management, stakeholder relations, data and analytics, and finance to ensure sharing of best practices, expeditious resource deployment, and reporting consistency.I am very positive and hopeful that together we can envisage a great future for the healthcare services in our nation as we re-imagine and transform healthcare together.
10. Please tell us about your future plans.
We try to excel in every front and achieve the maximum for our stakeholders and community at large. Our hope comes from the smile of so many children who are born and treated in our hospitals everyday and we strive for the same smile in the upcoming years.
