Flab Healthcare: Leveraging Extensive Expertise & Innovation To Transform The Indian Healthcare Sector

Owing to a wide range of innovations and initiatives combined with various groundbreaking initiatives by the Indian government, such as Janaushadhi Pariyojana, Ayushman Bharat Yojana, and so on, the Indian healthcare sector, over the years, has experienced tremendous progress. Various factors, such as low medical procedure costs, a rich talent pool of skilled doctors, and advanced technology, have helped the country emerge as a leading global medical tourism destination. Based on the healthcare delivery and facilities offered, the Indian healthcare sector is categorized into various tiers - Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary Care. While the other tiers of healthcare facilities are well-established, the secondary care segment is still a bit unorganized and requires further strengthening in terms of funding and efficient service delivery.

Started in 2021, FLAB Healthcare is a Chennai-based healthcare consulting firm offering a wide range of healthcare consulting services to its clients in the healthcare sector. The firm started its operations in 2022 with Sudha Hospitals, an Erode-based 300-bed multispecialty hospital that also operates a chain of IVF centers. Later, the firm got the opportunity to work with various esteemed hospitals, such as Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, and Madurai-based Devadoss Hospital. Over the years, FLAB Healthcare has focused on providing quality medical consulting services while experiencing a gradual expansion in its client base.

One of the major issues faced by healthcare facilities in India, especially secondary care facilities, is in terms of managing cash flow while maintaining efficient administration. The increasing cost of medical equipment and consumables, as well as the caps on government insurance scheme tariffs have made the matter worse for these hospitals. FLAB Healthcare helps healthcare facilities manage such challenges and mitigate any risks through a wide range of healthcare consulting services, such as Consulting & Strategy, Project Management, Quality Improvement Initiatives, Procurement & Supply, Insurance Management, Training & Capacity Building, and Marketing & PR.

What makes FLAB Healthcare stand out from the rest is the extensive expertise & experience of its team in the healthcare delivery domain
Dr. Babu Narayanan, Chief Executive Officer

As part of Consulting & Strategy, the firm helps its clients with advisory services, strategic planning, and implementation in terms of operations and management while ensuring that they are aligned with the objectives. Under its Quality Improvement Initiatives, FLAB Healthcare, other than helping clients with various accreditations, such as NABH, NABL, and ISO, also helps enable various quality improvement projects, such as Lean management, Six Sigma, 5S, and so on. Through its Procurement & Supply services, the firm helps its clients with the supply of medicines and consumables at an affordable cost.

Coming to Project Management services, FLAB Healthcare oversees site evaluation, architectural & structural designing, as well as overall construction of greenfield and brownfield hospital projects. Finally, under its Marketing & PR services, FLAB Healthcare offers its clients various brand-building services, such as branding, advertising, digital & social media advertising, healthcare events, and public relations.

When it comes to healthcare consulting, FLAB Healthcare ensures smooth management of day-to-day operations at the client hospital by deploying an onsite team at the hospital while guiding them to implement the best industry practices. For the first three months, the firm does an overall audit and gap study into all the operational domains, such as infrastructure, insurance, operations, quality, purchase, and so on, before presenting a thorough report to the management. The team then works with the administrative team while guiding and mentoring them to implement strategies to ensure that they learn the best industry practices.

What makes the firm stand out from the rest of its peers in the market is the extensive expertise and experience of its team. According to Adel J, Founder & COO of FLAB Healthcare, “The firm was started by a group of five healthcare professionals with a combined experience of more than 100 years in the healthcare delivery domain, managing numerous medium, tertiary, and quaternary care hospitals and implementing updated system processes as well as best industry practices". Dr. Babu Narayanan, Founder & CEO of FLAB Healthcare adds, “Starting from scratch, we are today considered one of the most recognized service providers in the industry, often contacted by doctors and hospitals to manage their pain points”.

As part of the future roadmap, while FLAB Healthcare has been pretty active in Chennai, the firm is currently working on expanding its operations to Kerala as well as other parts of the country. FLAB Healthcare is currently investing in a technology-based company, where the firm has further plans to develop AI-based analytical tools for various hospital operations. The firm is also planning to expand its service portfolio, and venture into purchase and supply chain management.