Corporate Social Responsibility of Health Care Sector

Corporate Social Responsibility of Health Care Sector Vidhya.K Assistant Professor of Management Savitha.P Assistant Professor of Commerce Bharathiar University Arts and Science College Sivagiri, TN - India ABSTRACT Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not new to India; health care centres in India like Apollo, IndraPrastha have been imbedding the case for social good in their operation for decades long before CSR became a popular cause. Health Sector clearly stands out as a leader, when discussing the CSR issues. Part of thereason will be its close relation to its multiple stakeholders of society, government, andother private sectors. Another part of the reason may be that its way of making profits hasa bigger relationship to people s lives by affecting their health problems rather than otherbusiness entities. In spite of having such life size successful example, CSR in India isin a very emerging stage. It is still one of the least understood initiatives in the Indiandevelopment sector. The purpose of this paper was to identify and appreciate the CSR practices of various health care centres in India Keywords: CSR, Indian Development Sector and Social Good INTRODUCTION The healthcare industry is potentially the world's largest industry with total revenues of approximately US$ 2.8 trillion. In India as well, healthcare has emerged as one of the largest service sectors constituting 5 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and offering employment to around 4 million people. India's primary competitive advantage over its peers lies in its large pool of well-trained medical professionals. Also, India's cost advantage compared to peers in Asia and Western countries is significant - cost of surgery in India is one-tenth of that in the US or Western Europe.CSR mission of health care centres is to touch a billion lives. The health care centres strive to reach out to people from every walk of life and do our bit to help them stay healthy. Apart from the major social initiatives and programmes that hospitals have initiated, every individual hospital does its bit for the community it serves. They are committed to provide care and solace to the people in their location. This paper present the various community service events that take place in select health care centers of India. The private sector's share in healthcare delivery is expected to increase from 66 per cent in 2005 to 81 per cent by 2014. The primary responsibility of today s private hospital is that dedicated to its well-embraced CSR policy, and to best-business practices, is to use scarce resources prudently and efficiently. Hence, being socially responsible and being committed to this responsibility, means to continually strive to find the right balance between what patients want and what the hospital can afford, ensuring that the institution as a whole has good standards of healthcare services, and that staff are willing and able to provide the care needed. Objectives To identify the contributions made by healthcare centres to India. To recognize the corporate social responsibility practices of select healthcare centers in India. IRJBM (www.irjbm.org ) Volume No VIII, January 2015, Issue 2 Page 20

Market size of healthcare sector: The healthcare sector is growing at a 15 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and grew from US$ 45 billion in 2008 to US$ 78.6 billion in 2012 and is expected to touch US$ 158.2 billion by 2017, according to a report by Equity Capital. India's per capita healthcare expenditure has increased at a CAGR of 10.3 per cent from US$ 43.1 in 2008 to US$ 57.9 in 2011 and is expected to rise to $88.7 by 2015. The factors behind the growth are raising incomes, better access to high-quality healthcare facilities and greater awareness of personal health and hygiene, highlighted the report. The private sector has emerged as a vibrant force in India's healthcare industry, lending it both national and international repute. The private sector's share in healthcare delivery is expected to increase from 66 per cent in 2005 to 81 per cent by 2015. Its share in hospitals and hospital beds is estimated at 74 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively. Investments of healthcare sector According to data released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), hospital and diagnostic centres attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) worth Rs 12,413.57 crore (US$ 2.02 billion) between April 2000 and July 2014. Some of the major investments in the Indian healthcare industry are as follows: LifeCell, India's largest umbilical cord blood stem cell bank, plans to set up a public stem cell bank at a cost of Rs 30 crore (US$ 4.9 million). Max India plans to dilute its stake in Max Healthcare in favour of its South African partner Life Healthcare in an all-cash deal of about Rs 794 crore (US$ 129.76 million). TPG Capital is in advanced talks to invest up to Rs 900 crore (US$ 147.09 million) for a minority stake in Manipal Health Enterprises (MHE). HLL Lifecare has teamed up with Tata Memorial Centre for constructing a modern women and children cancer hospital at Parel in Mumbai. BlackBerry plans to launch a healthcare service that will integrate thousands of medical devices to enable early detection of illnesses, in partnership with healthcare technology firm NantHealth, as it looks beyond smartphones in the Indian market. Government Initiatives The Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, the Department of AIDS Control and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an objective of providing HIV preventive services to transport sector workers. The Central Government has requested the Government of Odisha for allotment of 25 to 30 acres of land for setting up a satellite centre of the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhubaneswar as a super specialty healthcare facility. India and Maldives signed three agreements after delegation level talks between Mr Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, President, Maldives, and DrManmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India, on January 2, 2014. The pacts included a MoU on health cooperation. The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal for setting up of National Cancer Institute (NCI) at a cost of Rs 2,035 crore (US$ 332.62 million). NCI will be set up in the Jhajjar campus (Haryana) of AIIMS, New Delhi. The project is estimated to be completed in 45 months. Under the Union Budget 2014-15, some of the major initiatives taken by the Government of India to promote the healthcare sector in India are as follows: Free Drug Service and Free Diagnosis Service to achieve 'Health For All' Two National Institutes of Ageing to be set up at AIIMS, New Delhi and Madras Medical College, Chennai A national level research and referral Institute for higher dental studies to be set up IRJBM (www.irjbm.org ) Volume No VIII, January 2015, Issue 2 Page 21

AIIMS-like institutions in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Vidarbha in Maharashtra and Poorvanchal in UP. A provision of Rs 500 crore (US$ 81.71 million) made 12 new government medical colleges to be set up 15 Model Rural Health Research Centres to be set up for research on local health issues concerning rural population The coming years will see great out-of-the-box thinking by the strategists in the field of healthcare, beginning with the way healthcare is delivered. To begin with, a rise in retail clinics, single speciality, secondary and tertiary care centres are seen coming to the fore including the recent examples of NOVA day care, BEAMS and Apollo clinics. The tier II/III cities have suddenly become attractive to the healthcare players, especially because of the tax sops and increasing disposable incomes among Indian families across the country and dearth of quality healthcare infrastructure in these locations. Specially focused on medical tourism, health cities are being designed and executed and hospitals with bed strengths of 1500/2000 which were never heard in the private domain are now coming to light. Technology will play a major role in bringing quality in healthcare, be it better nursing communication systems, patient monitoring devices or telemedicine to provide low cost diagnosis to remote patients, etc. Companies like Blackberry, HCL and HP are already investing heavily in healthcare technology and Google trying to ambitiously woo the consumers for a centralised healthcare database. What is in store for the future of healthcare is limitless. CSR OF SELECT HEALTHCARE CENTRES 1. Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd (AHEL) Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd (AHEL) inaugurated the first of its hospitals in the 'First Med hospitals' chain at Chennai. The hospital is situated on the Poonamallee high Road and will provide emergency and trauma care to the neighbouring areas. The hospital will also have a multi-specialty acute care centre. The hospital will have over 25 specialties, including cardiology, neurology, nephrology, urology, orthopaedics and radiology. CSR Practices of Apollo Hospital Apollo Hospitals undertook several initiatives as expression of its deep commitment to societal welfare. Some of the most significant ones are listed below: The Apollo Hospitals Group signed a memorandum of understanding with the Union Government to set up "Central Government Health Scheme - Apollo Dialysis Clinics" to provide specialised services to kidney patients enrolled under CGHS Apollo Group completed 2,500 cardiac surgeries performed under the auspices of SACH - Save A Child's Heart, our endeavour to support the medical treatment expenses of underpriviledged children ailing with serious congenital heart disease. Under SAHI, our initiative to aid the hearing impaired children, almost 1,000 children were screened, over 150 were referred for surgery and 160 were provided with hearing aids. Apollo Hospitals set up on-site medical centres, to provide immediate attention at various international sports events, exhibitions and pilgrim congregations. This apart different hospitals in the group conducted several free medical camps in their neighbouring areas, which were highly appreciated. IRJBM (www.irjbm.org ) Volume No VIII, January 2015, Issue 2 Page 22

2. Fortis Health care Ltd As a responsible company, saving and enriching lives, improving and managing the health of its customers and serving the community all converge to define the purpose of Fortis s core business. Drawing from its vision and mission statement, through CSR Fortis seeks to proactively engage with society by working with communities to improve their wellbeing in a compassionate and sensitive manner. Fortis seeks to bring focus to community welfare in Healthcare. Disability Programmes Adolescent Education Creating Awareness and Disbursement of Information Applicability Special Education Employment enhancing Vocational Skills Preventive Health Care Armed Force Veterans Promoting preventive health care Promoting gender equality Empowering women Promoting education Promoting preventive health care Making available safe drinking water Promoting sanitation Rural development projects 3. CSR Practices of Kovai Medical Centre Hospital KMCH Hospital, one of the leading healthcare providers in Coimbatore, Erode has corporate social responsibility as their main motto. The company always places greater importance to manage its affairs with highest levels of transparency, accountability and integrity and is committed to achieve and maintain the high standards of corporate governance on sustained basis. The hospital is committed to the welfare of not only poor patients but also to the society at large. The hospital has been regularly organizing various continuous medical education programmes, medical camps which provides, not only free medical care, but also promote health awareness and education to general public. During the year, free consultation camps were conducted for various medical specialities, like Cardiac Screening, Blood Screening, General Medicine, Occupational Therapy, Spine, Head & Neck, Gynaecology etc. They have been organizing various continuous medical education programmes (CME), medical camps which provide free medical care besides health awareness and education. During the year free consultation camps on Cardiology, Orthopaedics, Gastroenterology, Dental, General Medicine, Spine, Oncology, Diabetics, Multi-speciality and free General Medical camps were conducted. Ethical practice and do the best to their patients are their motto. 4. CSR Practices of Indra Prastha Medical Hospital Chacha Nehru Sehat Yojana was launched by the Govt. of NCT of Delhi on 14th November 2011 for providing Health Checks to all the students enrolled in the city's government schools. Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals provided medical screenings in schools and conducted immunization of students against Tetanus (Booster dose) and provided curative treatment, health education and counseling to the students. Medicines like iron, calcium, Vitamin A, antibiotics, antifungal, anti histaminic, cough syrups etc. were given to the needy students. During the implementation of the school health programme, the hospital teams have examined approximately 17,000 children in five schools in the given period from January 2012 to Feb 2013. IRJBM (www.irjbm.org ) Volume No VIII, January 2015, Issue 2 Page 23

CONCLUSION The Indian healthcare industry is rapidly growing and is being fueled by large investments from existing corporate hospital chains as well as new entrants backed by private equity investors. This is a clear indication that health care is going to be a major sector that stimulates the economic growth. The healthcare industry forms the backbone of any nation's well being. Public healthcare sector is underfunded and has inadequate infrastructure. The private sector has emerged as a vibrant force in India's healthcare industry, lending it both national and international repute. The health care echo system is at an inflection point. While the outlook for the healthcare industry is optimistic, there is a need to move towards an integrated healthcare delivery system. The healthcare industry should be patient centric and every healthcare institution is bestowed with a responsibility for the betterment of people and society. REFERENCES Alexander Dahlsrud (2006), Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, http://kantakji.com/media/3452/z113.pdf www. mcxindia.com/csr/newsarticle/pdf/csr_news45.pdf (October 18, 2012) Chris MacDonald, Ph.D., Two Problems of CSR- A blog about Business Ethics http://businessethicsblog.com/about/ Posted August 8, 2011 csrworld.net/csr-activities-of-indian-oil-corporation-limited.asp( assessed on 3rd January 2013 Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Union Budget 2012-13, RNCOS Reports, Media Reports, Press Information Bureau (PIB), pp.23 http://www.apollohospitals.com/apollo_pdf/annual_report_fy_march_2010.pdf http://www.kmchhospitals.com/pdf/kmch-annual-report-2012-13.pdf (retrieved on 26 th August 2014) www.iocl.com/aboutus/corporatesocialresponsibility.aspx(assessed on 5th January 2013www.indiacsr.in/en/?tag=indian-oil-corporation-limited( assessed on 5th January 2013) IRJBM (www.irjbm.org ) Volume No VIII, January 2015, Issue 2 Page 24