Sep 27, 2011 07:31 PM
19652 Views
This is my first review on mouthshut. Though I used to read reviews on mouthshut but didn't bother to write review about my experiences with any businesses till now.
So, what made me to write this review? Definitely a bitter experience. Wait a minute! Am I complaining about Columbia Asia hospital? Definitely not. The bitter experience was at the Hosmat Hospital, Bangalore. I practice boxing and 2 weeks ago there was a sparring in the ring and I got hurt on my ribs, as the pain didn't reduce with home remedies, my best friend took me to Hosmat Hospital because they have experts in sports medicine. We spent more than 3 hours to consult an OPD doctor which I would elaborate in my next review about Hosmat Hospital.
When I was contemplating about my bitter experience and wondering how a simple process streamline could improve the services drastically (I'm a Product Designer and Ethnography Researcher, so I tend to think of solutions and not just complaining) at the hospital. Then I just remembered the Columbia Asia hospital located at Hebbal. Here's my experience....
Last month around 3.30 a.m. when I was in deep sleep my friend Ramesh called me and his voice seemed to be agitated. Ramesh was going to get married in September and he was in his native to distribute wedding invitations to his Dad’s friends and relatives. His Dad had died when he was still in school and he was raised by his mother alone. He is the only son in his family and already his two sisters are married, so it was a very special occasion for their family.
Coming back to the phone call, my friend was travelling in a bus that’s going from Chennai to Bangalore and still it would take at least 6 hours for him to reach Bangalore. His mom had some health problem last evening and his little sister is taking care of his mom. He wanted my help to get her admitted to a nearby hospital. When I asked what the problem is, the symptoms he mentioned scared me, because those were the symptoms of a stroke patient. They live at Mathikere and I was thinking of getting admitted to M.S.Ramiah Hospital, but I remembered that his mom used to tell me that she never trusts this hospital because of some bitter experience by her friends. Then I thought of Columbia Asia, though the Columbia Asia at Yeshwanthpur would have been a good choice, based on some feedback I zeroed on Columbia Asia Hebbal. We brought her to Columbia Asia Hebbal at 4 a.m. and I was surprised by the promptness of the duty doctors, they diagnoised her and took her for a C.T.Scan.
As it was a Sunday, most of the doctors were on Holiday, but they brought a neurologist and admitted shifted her to the intensive care unit. But still they could not find out what’s the exact problem but they were giving treatment for all possible diseases. On the next day, things went really fast, they took a MRI scan and it was confirmed there is a blood clot in a very crucial nerve which connects the Brain and the vital organs of the body. The doctor mentioned if the patient was delayed in getting admitted, then it might have resulted in loss of life. My friend’s mom was unable to stand and could not speak properly, even in this situation she was worried about the marriage work and she was feeling very bad about her condition.
The neurologist Dr. Anuradha is an awesome doctor with loads of patience. She clarified all our doubts and her interaction with the patient was very friendly. The doctor ensured that my friend’s mom would be at least able to walk during the marriage and she assured there is nothing to worry about the patient’s condition as the medication and physiotherapy would heal within 3 months.
The administration department was friendly and they helped us to get all the paper work done for claiming medical insurance. The hospital has a very efficient Hospital Management System in place, this makes transferring and accessibility of patient’s data in less time. When we were waiting in the lounge, we never smelled any medicine such is the cleanliness. Even the toilets are maintained very neat; there are fragrance candles that give the feeling of a luxury hotel. By providing all these facilities definitely the hospital has to invest more money and this justifies that the hospital is not expensive, they only charge for the awesome experience. I believe the environment itself would make the patients to recover quickly. Overall for a 3 days stay, the bill came up to INR 35, 000. Other than for INR 3, 000 the remaining was paid by the Apollo health insurance company (of course we had some difficulties in getting the claim approved by the Apollo health insurance).
If you look at the cons, there are no serious drawbacks except few issues. One is that when we were getting the patient admitted, the front office confirmed that Apollo health insurance is covered, but later the cashier mentioned that only corporate insurance is accepted and not personal health insurance. As it was a crucial time, we paid an amount of INR 15, 000. Later, we understood the insurance was accepted but due to the difficulties in getting the claims approved by the individual health insurance holders they would deny it first and then accept later. Anyways they gave us the initial deposit as a check after two days from the date the patient got discharged.
Two weeks ago my friend got married and his mom is recovering very fast. Though she was not at her usual zeal in greeting the guests, but she is healthy and able to stand on her own and eat by herself :-)
