Day 10: Baby got back
Thursday
We were all on the bus by 445 am. We were on our way to the airport. This afternoon’s destination was Hyderabad. Today we were going to be visiting not one, not one and a half, but two care facilities.
The first clinic was a multi acre training a care facility called CARE. The name of the clinic gave me a sense at how original the people were. We were met by two gents who told us that they were going to lead us through the hospital answer any questions that we had.
The hospital was about seven stories tall, all of the stories at a different price range. What I mean by this is that if you wanted to be on the top story then you have to pay more than if you were on the bottom story. The hospital-we were told was much cheaper than the marketplace average. However, we couldn’t know for sure-considering the prices were not published. The way that CARE was able to lower their prices (so we were told) is by paying their people less. There was no innovation other than “if we pay less, than the care can be less.” These guys are brilliant.
At both Aravind and Ganga there was serious innovation going on to keep prices down. Not here. The only innovation was the innovation around the name which turned out to be Cardiac Research and Education.
The second clinic we visited was much more innovative. The first thing you saw when you entered LifeSpring was a waiting room with about 9 or 10 people in it. All of these people looked happier than most people in the hospitals that we have seen, but still the looked nervous. The operant mood fit the practice-LifeSpring does obstetrics.
The facility is by far the smallest we have seen so far on the trip. About 8500 sq feet, the amount of babies being born per month in LifeSpring is a crazy: 80 babies.
So. Here is the topic that you knew was coming: the LifeSpring business model. The three pillars of the life spring are: dignified, affordable, accessible maternity care.
Dignified
LifeSpring tries hard to go the extra mile to provide dignified care. Although unlike Ganga where they will see you no matter how much of the labeled price you can or cannot pay, here at LifeSpring you must pay the labeled price. However, there is no difference in care between your social economics. If someone says something bad or derogatory about a poor person, then the leaders of the practice will pull that person aside and speak with them. In order to have return patients and/or referrals you have to give dignified care.
Affordable
The prices of the visits are literally painted on the wall. There is a graph for the different prices. On the top you have the different rooms, different types of care. On the other side you have the prices. This means that you pay higher prices for the different care. However, just like Ganga, all the prices are much less expensive than the marketplace price. Also, all the care is the care, no matter what package or room you pick.
Accessible
There are twelve neighborhood based LifeSpring clinics. These small, efficient, productive clinics are the way LifeSpring is able to reach some many people
Without these three pillars, LifeSpring would not be able to do what they do.
About an hour had passed when I asked the question. The question that would unknowingly trigger something great. Something awesome. Something that holds immense bragging rights.
The doctor that we were talking to at the time replied “Would you like to see one?”
“Hells yeah!!” I reply. I did not realize that I had said that out loud. So, to compensate I sheepishly say “Sure. Tha’d be chill.”
It was pretty damn chill. Here is how it went down:
Off came the shoes, on came the scrubs. We huddled by the door as we watched the doctors make incision into the ladies stomach, padding the spot with a blood soaked toal. We could see the stomach wall as well as the liver and uterus. Then. The doctors stopped working, and in came a buff man who conversed with the doctors before doing the part that everyone in the family was hoping for. The buff started pushing on the stomach. He was pushing very hard. Then, two nurses came in and pushed out a crying ball of slime and not yet cuteness.
After the baby was out, the doctor invited us to the bed so we could get a closer look at the sewing of the stomach wall and the uterus. The thing that I kept thinking about was that I was present to the babies berth. No one else in the family. I was better than the dad. I was better than the grandpa. I was better than the mom in the way that I saw the baby come out of her tummy, not her. She was under spinal anesthesia. Although we were able to talk to her while the baby was coming out, she mentally was not present.
Today I saw a baby born. U?
Here is a link to LifeSpring
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