There are many benefits of entering into a partnership. Gaining invaluable experience, fostering knowledge sharing, reducing costs, and achieving better results are just some of the reasons why teaming up can produce more favourable outcomes than to go it alone.
In the healthcare sector, partnerships can lead to a more coordinated and integrated approach to treatment and care, resulting in better patient outcomes.
The healthcare landscape in Southeast Asia consists of many hospitals run by managers who have a wealth of corporate experience but are not medically trained. Studies indicate that this may not be the best approach.
According to a 2016 article published in Harvard Business Review, the world’s best hospitals such as the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic in the United States are managed by doctors.
At IOC, our mission is to bring hope and provide top quality care to Asia by putting control back in the hands of doctors and patients. We achieve this through a unique Clinical Practice Partnership (CPP) model where doctors own equity stakes in our hospitals and specialty centres, giving them financial ownership and the right to influence and design operations, systems, and processes in an efficient way to provide quality care to patients.
Seven of our centres currently have CPP: Hong Kong Integrated Oncology Centre, Hong Kong Adventist Oncology Center, Central Luzon Integrated Oncology Centre in the Philippines, Adi Husada Cancer Center in Surabaya, Indonesia, Solis Breast Care and Surgery Centre, Singapore, Luma Women’s Imaging Centre/ Day Surgery Centre in Singapore and Beacon Hospital in Selangor, Malaysia.
At each centre, doctors work together with professional managers to make key decisions affecting clinical care and staff training. In their previous roles, most of the doctors were unable to make management decisions, especially when it affected clinical outcomes and the patient’s healthcare experience.
Since our doctors take on management roles, they front the hospitals or specialty centres and have the autonomy and influence in managing their facilities. As such, the CPP model empowers doctors to create the healthcare practice they want and to help them realise their ambition and potential. With medical specialists as owner-partners providing the clinical direction, patients can receive integrated and multidisciplinary care from diagnosis to treatment and rehabilitation.
New doctors joining IOC’s network can only join at the invitation of the resident doctors, ensuring that the doctors continue to work closely as a team when treating patients.
To ensure the doctors are not bogged down by administrative work, experienced healthcare administrators are recruited for each hospital and centre. They can support the doctors by relieving them of much of the administrative and operational tasks so that they can spend more time focusing on patient care while still having processes and systems that work for them.
In addition, our partnership philosophy ensures there are synergies, collaboration and knowledge sharing across geographies and disciplines. This coordination offers each centre purchasing power advantages when negotiating with vendors for equipment and medical consumables.
As IOC’s regional network grows further, we will continue to use the CPP model to further improve each hospital and centre and increase the accessibility to quality oncology care. We look forward to helping our doctors pursue their professional aspirations and realise their full potential.
