The healthcare market in India is growing because of rising income, better healthcare awareness, and increasing access to insurance but there remain challenges like lack of infrastructure, shortage of trained manpower, etc. To overcome this challenge, Dr.Geetika Patel allied medical education along with her Parul Sevashram Hospital which is a 750+ bedded multi-specialty hospital incepted in 2012 at Waghodia, Vadodara. It is established with a vision of Health for all and to provide healthcare excellence to the patients. Dr.Geetika Patel is a proficient doctor and medical director having pursued her MBBS and MD in Community Medicine and currently she is heading the Parul Sevashram Hospital. She is a trustee and governing body member who is developing and innovating effective administrative initiatives in service to Parul Sevashram Hospital.

Dr.Geetika Patel engages in an exclusive interaction with Women Entrepreneur Magazine.

Tell us about your educational background and professional journey so far.

I pursued my MBBS and MD in Community Medicine from MS University, Vadodara in the year 2012. After my postgraduation, I entered into my family trust as a trustee and that is the time when we decided to step up into the healthcare sector by establishing a small 100-bed hospital. Being from a medical background, I took up the entire charge of the hospital and also envisioned starting medical education allied with it. The administrative work was quite a challenge but gradually, I started reading lots of books on Hospital Management and started building my own experience from the people who were recruited at that time and over a period of time, I became quite confident in managing the healthcare facility. After two to three years, we started growing and soon we became a 300-bedded hospital and that is the time we decided to start a medical college along with the hospital. We modified our hospital as per the regulations of the Medical Council of India and then applied for the MBBS course in the first year itself and within the next three to four years, we expanded very fast and came up to a 750-bedded hospital.

Currently, we also have post-graduation courses in our medical college with more than 2000 students studying in different health sciences programs and right now our hospital is one of the most sought hospitals in the city as well as the state for tertiary care level treatments.

Tell us about the roles and responsibilities you shoulder including the challenges you face at your position and how you overcome those challenges.

In the beginning, I was responsible for taking every single decision but gradually lots of delegation and hierarchal setup came up in the system and currently I am focusing more on strategic planning, new projects, and improving our quality towards the accreditation. Along with taking major key decisions, I spend lots of time in the recruitment process to find the correct people for the correct job role. I also spend time doing analysis of feedback from all the stakeholders and coming up with future plans for improvisation. The major challenge which I face is managing the interpersonal issues among the doctors of different departments and to overcome this challenge, I listen to everyone’s perspective during our monthly meeting with every department on one common platform.

What has been your most remarkable achievement so far and what is the driving force behind your success?

From a small 100-bedded hospital to a more than 750-bedded multi-specialty hospital and being able to start MBBS, as well as post-graduation programs in a very short span of time, are the major milestones. In the COVID times, we established a 600-bedded dedicated COVID hospital where we treated more than 3000 patients and we also vaccinated more than 10,000 people over the period of the last two years. The integrated holistic healthcare like rehabilitation centre, psychology department, and AYUSH treatments is something that makes us stand out and we are one of the few hospitals that are training 750 doctors as well as 2500 paramedics every year.

"You can do wonders by exploring your potential and knowing your sense"

Trying to reach out to maximum patients come saving as many lives as possible and making a difference in someone’s life by helping them be it through my efforts in healthcare, education, and social initiatives are the driving force behind my success.

What steps do you take to keep yourself aligned with the changes that keep happening in the education space and also in the world of healthcare?

Being a part of many academic organizations like Indian Chamber of Commerce in the Healthcare division, Voice of Healthcare, ELETS- healthcare etc. helps me to take a part in lots of panel discussions for which I read a lot and keep updating myself with some online programs as well. I have subscribed to healthcare journals which give me lots of information and I keep visiting newly opened hospitals that have done some state of art work in a particular division to keep myself updated with the changes happening in the healthcare space.

What would your advice be to young women who are just starting out in their careers?

As women, many leadership qualities like responsiveness, empathy, patience are imbibed in us right from childhood, and therefore we just need to know our potential and explore our interest areas in which we want to work. Also, women should come forward, learn to be more assertive and take more leadership positions because they push themselves beyond their limits to attain whatever they believe in.

Dr. Geetika Patel, Medical Director, Parul Sevashram Hospital

Dr.Geetika Patel has completed her MBBS and MD from Medical College, Baroda, and currently, she is heading the Parul Sevashram Hospital as a Medical Director.