Hemas Hospitals wins prestigious Asian Hospital Management Healthcare Excellence Award

Hemas Hospitals, Sri Lanka’s healthcare leader was recently awarded the top global honour for excellence in ‘Innovation in hospital management and governance’ at the prestigious Asian Hospital Management (HMA), Asia Healthcare Excellence awards 2016. The gala international awards ceremony was held last week in Vietnam.

The Asian Hospital Management Awards recognises and honours hospitals in Asia that implement best hospital practices. Now in its 15th year, it is the accepted hospital management awards program for the Asia Pacific region. Awards are given to hospitals in the region that, in the opinion of the judges and advisers, have implemented or enhanced outstanding and innovative projects, programs, and best practices during the prescribed time period. For 2016, there were 322 award entries from 92 hospitals across 15 countries who participated in the highly prestigious awards ceremony.

Hemas Hospitals Multi-Chain Director Finance Portia Jayamaha and Management Accountant Dinupa Peiris receiving the HMA excellence award from International Hospital Federation (Switzerland) CEO Dr. Eric de Roodenbeke

The multi-chain was awarded for its project ‘Reaching the Pinnacle of Hospital Management through Business Intelligence (BI), Balance Scorecard, Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)’s and Strategic Cost Management’. Hemas Hospitals made governance their priority with the introduction of Standard Operating Procedures and Operating Manuals. Strategic cost management came up next by adding new dimensions to the pricing decisions of the entire private healthcare industry. 

Finally, the introduction of Balanced Scorecard and Business Intelligence gave a holistic picture on organisational performance in both financial and non-financial aspects with BI enabling real time access to information. Hemas is the first hospital in Sri Lanka to introduce BI for management decision making. 

“This is a proud moment for us to be applauded amongst international peers,” exclaimed Hemas Hospitals group Managing Director Dr. Lakith Peiris. “We aim to deliver comprehensive health services and quality care consistently to provide value to our customers. Our commitment is to achieve this through responsible practices and sustained investments in our people as well as technology to meet the challenges of tomorrow. Our programmes are just a reflection of our commitment and our efforts in taking healthcare to the next level.”

Hemas Hospitals Finance Director Portia Jayamaha noted that hospitals are complex operations with different types of individuals playing diverse roles requiring standardisation and process optimisation. “Data is generated in multiple forms during the care giving process, which is why data consolidation and visualisation becomes vital. We undertook to venture on a journey to be more innovative in managing our operations and are thrilled that it has now been considered an outstanding achievement,” she added. 

“This award is a shot in the arm, a boost to our efforts in the continuous journey of excellence in whatever we do,” summed up Dr. Peiris.

Hemas Hospitals Ltd. is a subsidiary of Hemas Group, a leading Sri Lankan conglomerate that has business interests in four key sectors – FMCG, Healthcare, Transportation and Leisure.

The multi-specialty hospital chain comprises of three full-service hospitals at Wattala, Galle and Thalawathugoda along with 15 fully equipped laboratories and provides community-based expert health care services by positioning its chain of hospitals in strategic locations outside the commercial hub of Colombo. It guarantees patients the highest safety standards backed by full international accreditation and was the first hospital in Sri Lanka to be recognised by the prestigious accreditation body, Australian Council for Healthcare Standards.