Nightingales and Philips Healthcare partner for Specialized Home Respiratory Care
Bangalore, July 14, 2014: In a move that signifies the transformation of Indian healthcare delivery and the growing importance of speciality home care, a global medical technology major and a speciality home care company are partnering to provide speciality respiratory care to patients at home. Bangalore based speciality home care company Nightingales under Medwell Ventures has entered into a first of its kind partnership with global medical technology leader Philips Healthcare to provide specialized home respiratory care services to patients. These services will be made available in Bangalore with immediate effect and will be expanded to other metros as Nightingales expands its India footprint. Respiratory disorders are growing at an alarming rate in India and more than 100 mn Indians suffer from some level of respiratory diseases. It is also estimated that 5-15% of Indian population in the metros suffer from respiratory disorders. Amongst the many respiratory disorders COPD is a major cause of morbidity and mortality across the globe, according to WHO more than 65mn people across the globe have moderate to severe COPD and it is one of the main causes of recurrent hospitalisation with a 25% readmission rate putting tremendous cost burden on the patients on an ongoing basis. In India there are an estimated 30mn patients with COPD and its increase is being contributed to factors like under-diagnosis, poor continuity of treatment and inappropriate care at home. Globally one of the key actions that has been used for COPD management is home ventilation. In India therefore there is a need to start constant specialized care and monitoring at home with Home ventilation and Home oxygen therapy. Often patients lack this specialized care at home, thereby aggravating the disease. If home-based professional medical care facility is provided to such patients then majority of critical complications can be averted. “The escalating incidences of respiratory disorders and the need for continuous specialized care in many cases, makes home based respiratory- care services an indispensable aspect of disease management. The services offered by Nightingales and Philips willenormously help the patients and their families, significantly improving patient’s treatment outcomes and reducing recurrent hospitalizations in several cases,� says leading pulmonologist, Dr.K.S. Satish. Effective home management of respiratory disorders starts with a customized care protocol and plan for the patient, carefully prepared by the treating doctor. The main components of the care plan include pulmonary medications, oxygen therapy, non-invasive ventilator support, pulmonary rehabilitation, breathing exercises, muscle enhancement/strengthening and secretion clearance techniques. Nightingales will provide all these services to its patients at home with the assistance of its proficient team of nurses and rehabilitation specialists. Under the new partnership, Nightingales will take its speciality home services for respiratory distress patients to an advanced level by making respiratory gadgets likenon-invasive ventilator (NIV) and oxygen concentrator from Philips, available to the patients at their homes. Moreover, respiratory therapists and speciality nurses in pulmonology will be trained by Philips as per world class protocols to work in sync and provide the most advanced and effective treatment support to the patient.
The patient will also be registered at Philips Call Centre where all the data of the patient will be stored. It will support patient education, promoting healthy behaviors and self-care, leading to improved clinical outcomes. The Call Centre will also assign a nurse and respiratory therapist to each patient for regular
visits and monitoring. Any concern raised to the Call Centre by the patient shall be immediately resolved by the medical team. Regular home visits by the medical personnel and follow-ups from the treating doctors will also be ensured. With these advanced and protocol driven home respiratory-care facilities of Nightingales, patients with complex respiratory disorders will be able to avoid frequent re-hospitalizations and improve their quality of life. Only in case of very acute episodes; the patient will require hospital admission. This will ensure a more cost effective and personalized approach to treat respiratory disorders by reduction in no: of days of hospitalization. Speaking about this unique tie-up where the best respiratory technologies from Philips will enhance Nightingales home respiratory care services, Mr. Lalit Pai, CEO, Nightingales says, “This association marks a giant stride forward in home-based respiratory healthcare services offered in India. This partnership reflects Nightingales focus of home based chronic disease management and providing patients a new avenue of care. Philips has a dedicated home care respiratory technology which will back the care protocols and together we will strive to provide a new level of respiratory care at home.�
About Nightingales Wellness Private Limited: Nightingalesis India’s leading home health company for the last 18 years. Post the recent acquisition of the company by Medwell Ventures it has a new focus ofSpeciality Home Healthcare services in chronic diseases in pulmonology, cardiology, neurology, metabolic diseases, orthopaedics, geriatrics and post-operative rehabilitation. Additional services will include remote health monitoring, tele-health, diagnostics, rehabilitation and wellness therapeutics. It currently has more than 5000 families in Bangalore subscribing to its annual care plans. In the coming years, Nightingales aims to establish a healthcare delivery network in 10 Indian metro clusters and increase its subscriber base to over 500,000 families. About Philips Healthcare: It is a multi-national diversified technology company, founded in 1891 and headquartered in Amsterdam. The company is a leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare solutions and technologies. It also provides a wide array of complementary product offerings in the area of respiratory care, and has been chosen 15 times by the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) for the Zenith Award, an award which credits excellence in products and service for the respiratory industry.