Vinmec’s healthy hospital-hotel model

Vingroup’s deputy chairman Le Khac Hiep said the group would develop Vinmec to become the top quality international hospital in Vietnam and South East Asia.

Why did Vingroup decide to jump into the healthcare sector which may not earn speedy returns of investment like in property and tourism?

Reality shows that most leading specialised public hospitals in big cities face serious overload, adversely affecting their service quality. Hence, our group wishes to lend a helping hand to ease the burden.

The Vinmec international hospital will attract a significant number of patients, then helping to reduce the overloading situation of public hospitals. Besides, high-quality healthcare service providers in Vietnam could help prevent a ‘foreign currency drain’ as many Vietnamese people have headed overseas for health treatment.

Vinmec aims to offer not only top-quality medical services on par with international standards, but also looks forward to practising state social security policies. Towards this goal, we will earmark part of the hospital profit to take care of the poor, providing them with opportunities to benefit from quality services.

That is why Vingroup has entered the healthcare sector. We are committed ourselves to turning Vinmec into an exemplary international hospital in Vietnam.

How will the ‘hotel’ element be featured at Vinmec?

As soon as you step into Vinmec, you will be received in ways as you are in a five-star hotel. Besides, single patient rooms are bathed in natural sunlight and fitted with modern amenities like TV sets, internet, two-way call systems, telephones, built-in cabinets, luxury bathrooms and extra-beds or sofas for patient families.

Specifically, the hospital is home to 25 VIP rooms, two presidential suite rooms, a restaurant serving meals with set menus and the food will be brought directly to patient rooms, parallel to a range of other room services like in five-star hotels.

Furthermore, Vinmec will roll out special preferences for kids. Child patients can indulge themselves with funny pictures on the walls. There, they can play on slides, assembling games or hide and seek in tinted houses.

Vingroup is a big name in property sector. What will make the group stand out as a high-quality medical service provider?

Vinmec’s distinctive feature lies on its single patient rooms with premier service quality. Besides, Vinmec is a pioneer in Vietnam in acquiring  state-of-the-art and compatible apparatus of world-famous manufacturers such as Beckman Coulter, Steris, GE, Hill-Rom (US), Siemens Healthcare and Drager (Germany), Olympus (Japan) and Swisslog (Switzerland) to ensure the  safety and efficiency, time saving, accuracy and environmental friendliness.

Along with the state-of-the art infrastructure and equipment, Vinmec prides itself on a team of highly qualified, experienced and attentive specialists, doctors and pharmacists. About 90 per cent of Vinmec doctors have postgraduate degrees. Some 20 per cent are professors and associate professors. About 30 per cent have doctorate degrees and 40 per cent have master degrees.

Fully aware of the importance of nursing, Vinmec has set up an international standard nursing process that will be staffed by well-trained and highly specialised nurses graduated from professional colleges and universities who have worked in domestic and international environments that provide high-end health care services.

The hospital-hotel concept is quite new to many Vietnamese. How can Vinmec articulate this new model?

The hospital is equipped with specialised dust and bacterium filter system with the aim of building a comprehensive treatment environment under World Health Organization (WHO) standards.

Besides, the waste-water and solid waste treatment systems were built in a synchronous manner meeting the healthcare sector’s strictest requirements. With its goal to be a “Clean Hospital - Green Hotel”, Vinmec also offers a large green coverage to provide fresh air and peaceful ambiance to facilitate the fastest recovery of patients.

Vingroup has made remarkable contributions to social corporate responsibility activities in the past few years. Can you shed some light on this?

In 2012, Vingroup’s Kind Heart Fund will team up with Vinmec to render a free healthcare programme for the poor with a total fund of VND50 billion ($2.4 million).

Additionally, Vingroup also granted VND50 billion ($2.4 million) to the Ministry of Health, in which VND30 billion ($1.44 million) would be for  expansion of the Oncology Centre at Bach Mai Hospital to mitigate the centre’s heavy overload and VND20 billion ($960,000) for building and operating 10 clinics in remote and isolated areas.

Each clinic will get a VND2 billion ($96,000) fund. Of this sum, VND1 billion ($48,000) will be for construction costs and VND500 million ($24,000) spent on drugs and medical equipment and the rest for supporting doctors’ and nurses’ wages within three to five years. This will help remote and rural areas attract doctors and other medical workers.