For a man who is all heart, Devi Prasad Shetty has a good head for business. . .
You have seen him on most TV channels, the charismatic and earnest Devi Prasad Shetty, one of India's most celebrated cardiac surgeons and messiah of the poor.
Usually to be found in surgical gown and cap - he and his team perform a remarkable 24-28 surgeries daily at his showpiece Narayana Hrudayalaya Institute of Cardiac Sciences in Bangalore - the good doctor has a fan following that extends across the subcontinent into the Middle East and Africa.
India's Dr Heart is especially popular with children and the parents of newborn babies who get special care in Narayana Hrudayalaya's paediatric section, which is probably the largest in the world.
If you are a businessman, you have probably read the Harvard Business School case study on Dr Shetty that extols his method of providing high-quality heart treatment to all comers through a relentless drive to cut costs.
The philosophy of the family-owned 1,000-bed Narayana Hrudayalaya, valued at Rs 1,600 crore (Rs 16 billion), is unique: if you can, you pay; if you cannot then you're treated for free.
Together with his older hospital in Kolkata, Narayana Hrudayalaya's 28-32 surgeries account for 10-12 percent of the total cardiac surgeries done in India, a figure that he would like to push up to 70 surgeries in the next five years.
Image: Dr Devi Prasad Shetty. | Photograph, courtesy: Business Standard
Text: Latha Jishnu, Business Standard
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