Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) India conducted a webinar on ‘COVID-19 Survival and Beyond: Strategic Choices for the Healthcare Sector’ with healthcare leaders from India, the U.S. and South East Asia. The discussion highlighted the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the operational and financial performance of India’s private hospitals, value chain risks and the sector’s path forward. 

Moderated by Kaustav Ganguli, Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal India and Healthcare Practice Leader for the region, the webinar panelists included Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, Managing Director and CEO, Fortis Healthcare; Dilip Jose, Managing Director and CEO, Manipal Hospitals; Viren Shetty, Executive Director and Group COO, Narayana Health; Dr. Abhinay Bollineni, CEO, KIMS Hospitals; Varun Khanna, CCO of Siloam Hospitals, Indonesia; Gurmit Singh Chugh, Chairman, Translumina Therapeutics; Anish Bafna, Managing Director and CEO, Healthium Medtech; and Larry Kaiser, Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal’s New York based Healthcare Industry Group.

Key takeaways from the discussion included: 

1. Need to build pragmatic and downside scenarios to charter and plan demand, service and occupancy growth
2. Need to optimize cost and capital for future performance
3. Importance of embracing digital healthcare outreach and delivery supported by data analytics, telemedicine and e-pharmacy, as the new normal beyond the pandemic
4. Need for government and regulatory support
5. Importance of ramping up of specialized care and post-COVID-19 health risk management solutions for healthcare workers