CIPACA, a Pan India ICU operations firm, says it has been adding at least 10 ICU beds per month this fiscal and is hopeful of increasing it further from next fiscal, supported by the growing interest among hospitals in small towns and rural areas to establish emergency care operations in their premises.
In this month alone, CIPACA has partnered with two hospitals – Tirukoilur in Tamil Nadu and Giridih in Jharkhand – and has launched 24/7 ICU operations in their hospitals. The Chennai-headquartered healthcare firm now runs ICU operations in 20 hospitals across 10 states in India through its tie-ups with hospitals in small towns. It was recently felicitated with the National recognition of the “Best ICU Clinical Excellence Award in Rural India – 2022.”
“Over the past 12 months, we added 1 hospital every month in the hinterland of the country and each hospital consists of 10 ICU beds. Therefore, we can proudly say that CIPACA has created 100 ICU beds in a span of 12 months. In FY24, we are eyeing to double it by partnering up with 20-25 hospitals and adding 200-250 ICU beds,” said Raja Amarnath, Managing Director, CIPACA.
“Our record addition of ICU beds in small towns would be an immense boost to the rural healthcare economy as rural ICUs will solve the pertinent problem of patients dying or getting subjected to diseases due to travelling to other cities for tertiary-level ICU care, he added.
In all the hospitals where CIPACA has commenced ICU operations, trauma cases that are so complicated are no longer referred to tier 1 or tier 2 cities for tertiary care. Now, these hospitals themselves handle such cases, thereby providing confidence to doctors in the region to treat critical patients. Also, those emergency patients not only get ‘golden hour’ emergency care but also avoid travelling to big hospitals in faraway cities, thereby saving a lot of money.
Amarnath said its drop-in ICU business model has proved to be a disruptive one in rural ICU care as it also aids small hospitals to grow their overall revenue and serve more patients.
Also, when CIPACA adds new ICU beds in every small town, it is creating new job opportunities for doctors, nurses, paramedical people, and other supportive administrative ICU team members in those regions. Setting up each ICU unit will create jobs for 25 to 30 people across domains, a unique feature in its business model.