Christian Medical College bags two national awards

The Christian Medical College(CMC) here bagged two national awards this year. Named 'India Healthcare Awards', one of the awards is for the best multi-specialty (non-metro area) and the other for the best cardiology care in the country.

The award was conferred on the hospital from CNBC TV18 and ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company.

On behalf of the hospital, Associate Director Dr George Joseph and Cardiology head Dr Sunil Chandy received the awards from the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, at a function held at Delhi recently.

While this is the first time the department of cardiology is receiving the award, for the hospital this is the second year in succession. Last year the hospital received India's most socially responsible award and a runner-up in the best multi-specialty tertiary care category from the same organisations.

This year the categories covered were general service, tertiary care hospitals (multi and single specialty hospitals), Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana Award to hospitals for outstanding service to the community and WHO Awards for excellence in Primary Healthcare.

The selection process covered the scope of service, infrastructure, patient safety record and innovation and research and the final ranking of the short-listed hospitals was done by doctors, specialists and patients in 17 cities across the major Indian states covering some 4,000 hospitals.

What does this mean to this hundred-year old institution? "We are truly humbled," said� director, CMC, Dr Suranjan Bhattacharji. "While our focus was to extend healthcare facilities to all sections of society, especially the poorer, awards like these sharpen our focus," he added.

HoD of cardiology Dr Sunil Chandy pointed out that the award was in recognition of the care with passion extended to all patients under one umbrella. "It makes us feel good," he said, adding, "We would like to enhance our performance so that our contribution to the society continues."

Among the other awards the hospital received this year are 'Healing with the Human Touch' award from Zee TV News Health Award as part of the 'Swastha Bharat Samman' held in New Delhi in October, a special award for its 'notable contribution to shape the clinical research environment in India' in October from the Indian Society for Clinical Research, and the 'Enterprises Driving Growth and Excellence through IT' award from The Information Week for its computerised hospital information system.

Several CMC departments (nephrology topping the list) did well in 'The Week' magazine's survey of hospitals and medical specialties in India. CMC was voted the third best multi-speciality hospital in India by the magazine.