In 2009, the then American President Barack Obama wrote to the director of the Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research (SJICR) Dr C N Manjunath, complimenting him on the Institute’s high quality cardiac care facility. An American citizen had been treated there at a nominal cost of Rs 92 and had written to Obama praising Dr Manjunath’s work.
In 2019, the Institute has been featured in the European Heart Journal’s September issue (European Heart Journal, Volume 40, Issue 34, 7 September 2019, Pages 2846–2848), brought out on the occasion of the annual Congress of European Society of Cardiology. The journal has featured the institute as “Cardiac Centre of Excellence” providing cutting-edge cardiac care at affordable cost to all segments of society and free-of-cost treatment to deserving underprivileged and financially-constrained patients.
Dr Manjunath says, “This is an honour not only for the State but for the country, as Jayadeva is the first hospital in India that has been profiled in an international peer-reviewed journal. No other hospital — private or government — has earned this recognition. The top priority is given to cleanliness and hygiene at all levels of services and most patients and visitors are wonder stuck and they don’t believe that this is a Government run hospital. Today we have shown that a Government run autonomous institute can be managed like a Five Star Hospital which most people think it is next to impossible.”
The journal states that with almost 90% of patients just walking-in without a prior appointment, treating such unprecedented numbers presents a huge challenge. "Nevertheless, the institute performs seamlessly to ensure that all outpatient department reports are delivered on the same day with adequate clinical consultation. The centre is attracting patients from outside India in neighbouring countries Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Middle East, and African nations.”
“The institute was privileged to have been visited by the London School of Economics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore, Health Care Leadership College of Singapore, Yale University of Management (USA), and Austrian Medical Team. The delegates have whole-heartedly applauded the efforts and sincerity of the leadership that guides the institute in providing to all segments of society cost-effective and high-quality treatment irrespective of financial affordability, despite attending to such a high volume of patients.”
Through its 'Treatment First, Pay Next' concept the centre has specially liberalized policies to provide immediate treatment disregarding any need for advance payments or insurance coverage for emergency interventions such as primary angioplasty. "In the year 2018 alone, the centre recorded a startling count of 10 000 angioplasties. It also records a daily count of about 15 open heart surgeries including bypass surgery, valve replacement, intra cardiac repair, aortic arch aneurysm, total anomalous pulmonary venous connection, etc. In addition to these, about 600 echocardiograms and 200 treadmill tests are performed at the centre daily. Witnessing an annual tally of 35 000 cathlab procedures, 205 350 echocardiograms, and 30 000 treadmill tests, the centre also caters to various peripheral vascular and endovascular surgeries and offers full-fledged laboratory services," says the journal.
Ever since Dr Manjunath has taken over the charge as Director, he has brought in a revolution and metamorphosis thereby providing high quality cardiac care at an affordable cost to all sections of the society. The Institute has recorded 300% growth in the last 9-10 years.
Keeping in view of increasing number of patients, the bed strength of the hospital has been increased from 300-600 exclusively for cardiac care which makes Jayadeva Institute the largest single centre cardiac care destination in South East Asia.
The Journal says the Institute also attracts interest from many overseas medical professionals for short-term training for the niche areas of balloon mitral valvuloplasty, trans-septal catheterization, paediatric interventions, complex angioplasties, and other similar structural heart disease procedures and performing live demonstrations of these procedures at National and International conferences.
