Materia Medica Malaysiana

Specialists in turning around hospitals in the red

CHRISTOPHER Yap, 43, is willing to take a clever challenge with any hospital owner or management. “Let us, Health Solutions (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, review your hospital operations and business process and we can turn it around and make 25% more in profit for the hospital.”

For hospital managers whose operations are running at a loss, Yap's offer is a difficult one to refuse because his pitch is: “If we do not make profits for you, then the following year's service is on the house.”

He is serious because his company has turned around two hospitals in the Philippines from the red into black within a year.

According to Yap, in November 2000, as principal consultant of Health Solutions, he did a business review of Fatima Medical Centre in the Philippines, which had been operating in the red for the past eight years.

The study, which he did with his colleagues at Health Solutions, took five months.

“We did a total review of all the business process operations, which included its marketing, pharmacy, radiology and housekeeping. Following the review, we identified the necessary changes and saw a 25% increase in hospital revenue,” Yap said.

Another feather in the cap for this international Malaysian company is turning around De Los Santos Medical Centre, also in the Philippines, said Yap, who sees the mission of the healthcare industry as planning and delivering excellence in its service.

Health Solutions Group accomplished a major milestone last month when it launched the first of its chain of eight Family Care International Clinics in Ho Chi Minh City. This launch also marked its maiden entry into the Vietnamese market.

Yap said the centre would provide curative medicine for children and adults, primary first aid, medical investigations, employment medical checks, immunisation, preventive medicine, occupational health, rehabilitation and other specialist services.

He said he is able to make profits for hospitals by using innovative and highly competent professional management techniques learnt from his 15 years of experience in sales, operations, financial and administrative work in a wide spectrum of industries primarily in the Asia-Pacific region.

Yap does this by first creating the vision and mission to achieve profitability. He then goes about establishing systems and procedures that consistently result in significantly increasing efficiency, control and profitability.

Health Solutions Group is entrenched in many parts of the Asia-Pacific, he said. It offers multifaceted, value-added consulting services in project management, medical planning, medical equipment planning, IT consultancy, specialised healthcare consultancy and operational management.

The group’s more recent forays include long-term operational management contracts with hospitals in Australia and Philippines, and a joint venture with one of the largest industrial groups in China.

“The fact that people at Health Solutions are made up of Malaysians speaks volumes of the professionalism, experience and international expertise these Malaysians possess. They would be of great service to the country and the Malaysian public and private sector healthcare industry,” said Yap.

In Malaysia, it built the Slim River District Hospital with a consortium, and another hospital in Setiu, Terengganu.