CIPACA, a leading rural ICU care provider, has said that it is confident of achieving its target of building 1000 rural ICU beds in the next 2-3 years as its disruptive business model has not only gathered momentum, but also achieved two major outcomes in the healthcare sector, thereby supplementing government’s initiatives in improving emergency care delivery in the hinterlands of the country.

The 6-year-old company has been able to make small hospitals in rural areas offer affordable top class ICU services without a worry on sustenance of their operations and create job opportunities for educated rural young women through adequate training, said a company statement.

In the past 6 months, it has expanded not only beyond Tamil Nadu, but also reached states like Tripura to manage ICU operations in a small town. Presently, it is managing 24/7 ICU operations in 15 hospitals located in the hinterlands across Southern, Western and Eastern regions.

CIPACA’s ICU operations have provided huge savings for the poor patients who would otherwise have to rely on big corporate hospitals in cities. Savings for each of the rural patients would run into a few lakh rupees.

“We are happy to report on the impressive progress we are making on the rural ICU mission. It is no mean feat to make available top-class ICU & emergency services in the remote parts of the country in a short period. One can see the real benefits of our mission in the hospitals we have tied-up. We will continue to expand our operations to more and more hinterlands,” said Dr Raja Amarnath, Founder and Managing Director of CIPACA.

While CIPACA model has helped arrest loss of revenue (estimated in the range of 30-50 per cent) due to quality ICU care, the small hospitals have also managed to widen the scope of healthcare services with better utilisation levels of high-end medical equipment and availability of trained para medical staff.

“While we have well-structured 24/7 ICU operations, CIPACA’s entry has given us confidence to add more specialities. We will add paediatrics and general surgery operations soon. On the other side,” Dr Suresh Babu, Director, MS Multi-specialty Hospital at Pithapuram in Andhra Pradesh, said in the statement.

Meanwhile, running ICU care operations requires well-trained paramedical staff and medical technicians. Many hospitals had to shut their ICU operations in the past due to non-availability of trained staff and other viable issues. Here also, CIPACA has been focusing on bridging the skill gap through its own ICU staff training programmes.