About
Dr. K. Hari Prasad
Born into a medical family (father is a doctor who has been operating a 150 bedded hospital for the last 40 years) a graduate degree in medicine was a natural outcome. Having graduated the search for specialization began and the pull was towards the glamour specialties like orthopedics and cardiac surgery. However not wanting to get restricted to one specialty and wanting to contribute over a larger area, Anesthesiology became the specialty of choice. Having specialized in anesthesiology, Dr. Prasad worked in at the family hospital for 4 years before embarking on a journey to contribute to the establishment of emergency medicine as a specialty India. At that point of time there was no concept of emergency medicine in the country and few believed in the benefits of the new specialty. It was at this point of time that Dr.Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals, the pioneer of modern day healthcare in India decided to launch the specialty across the Apollo Group of Hospitals. Dr.Prasad joined the Apollo Group of Hospitals and contributed to the launch of the first ever dedicated accident & emergency hospital in the country at Hyderabad. While large investments were made into the infrastructure, the challenge was personnel to operate the system.
There were no training programs for doctors or paramedics in emergency medicine. Dr.Prasad along with his colleagues started managing the emergency room and the pre-hospital services (they themselves working as paramedics in ambulances) essentially to demonstrate the importance of organized emergency system on the outcomes. Within a couple of months this model became a success and Dr.Reddy decided to create a model network of emergency services in Hyderabad and Dr.Prasad was entrusted with the responsibility.
Training personnel (both doctors and paramedics), developing the pre-hospital and in-hospital infrastructure, creating operating protocols and systems, setting benchmarks of service quality and medical outcomes and creating awareness in the community were all parts of the package that was developed to create an emergency system in Hyderabad. The first ever emergency system in India (20 ambulances & 8 emergency rooms) became operational at Hyderabad in the year 2000. While most hospitals in Hyderabad (other than the Apollo Group) did not respond to the initial requests to be part of this system, the success of this system soon saw other institutions (both private & public) taking up emergency medical services on a priority.
The next step was to take this model across the Apollo Group of Hospitals in India. As Director of Emergency Medical Services, Dr, Prasad took this across 12 major cities in India and created a network delivering consistent standards of care in each city. This model has subsequently become the national model with many states introducing EMS in partnership with different private players.
Partnerships and support of many individuals and organizations helped Dr.Prasad in creating the first model in Hyderabad. Royal College of General Practitioners, UK, College of Emergency Medicine, UK Long Island Jewish Medical Center, USA, Sanford Health System, USA American Heart Association and American Academy for Emergency Medicine in India, USA are some of the important contributors to the evolution of emergency medicine in India.
Dr.Prasad hosted the first ever conference on Emergency Medicine in India in 1999 at Hyderabad and during this conference formed the Society for Emergency Medicine, India which is today the professional body representing the specialty in India. The first ever International Conference on Emergency Medicine was also hosted at Hyderabad 2003.
In 2003 Dr.Prasad was promoted as Vice-President of Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad. Responsible for a network of 8 facilities in Hyderabad, Dr. Prasad developed an integrated hub and spoke model in Hyderabad. This model once again is the first of its kind in the country by a private healthcare provider. In 2006 Dr.Prasad was promoted as the Chief Executive Officer. Apart from the 8 facilities in Hyderabad he is also responsible for four other hospitals outside Hyderabad. As the Chief Executive officer he steered Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad to be the first hospital in the region to be accredited by Joint Commission International, USA and the first hospital outside the United States of America to be certified for excellence in management of acute stroke once again by Joint Commission International. Since 2006 Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad has been consistently voted as the best hospital in the region and has evolved into a health city - Apollo Health City, the first operational health city in Asia. Dr. Prasad was promoted as the CEO-Central Region of Apollo Group of Hospitals.
He became responsible for Apollo Hospitals across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujrath, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Orissa. His area of operations includes 3000 beds spread across 15 facilities in these states. Standardization of process and systems, creating a sense of belonging and team work across the region have been some of the critical achievements in this role. In 2016 Dr.Prasad was promoted as the President of the hospitals division of Apollo Hospitals Group, responsible for operations and P&L of all the group hospitals totaling to 10000 beds. Based on his earlier esperience Dr.Prasad integrated the operations of the group to create a hub-and-spoke model in cities where multiple facilities existed and standardized operations across the system. Clinical excellence coupled with outstanding service standards and cost optimization is the mantra adopted by Dr.Prasad to deliver financial results. Over the last couple of years healthcare industry has been going through difficult times with regulatory interventions and price capping impacting hospitals in an adverse manner. Dr.Prasad worked with the team in creating new models, changing fOCUS from traditional processes to new processes and has been able to sustain growth despite the onslaught on the healthcare sector in India.
Dr. Prasad is the first individual outside Europe to be honored with the Fellowship of College of Emergency Medicine, UK and the first individual in India to be honored with a Fellowship by the International Federation for Emergency Medicine. He has also been honored with the Life Time Achievement Award by the Society for Emergency Medicine, India. He also received the 'Legend in Emergency Medicine' award at the Asian Conference on Emergency Medicine, hosted in Delhi in November, 2019. Dr.Prasad was elected as the Best Lead across Apollo Group of Hospitals in the year 2012. Dr.Prasad was also amongst the 'Greatest Leaders in the World — Asia & CCC' for the year 2017-18 and this was awarded by the Asia One organization.
After a long stint with Apollo Hospitals in various leadership positions, Dr.Hari Prasad took over as the Group Chairman and non-executive Director of QualityCare India Ltd. Which is amongst the top 5 healthcare groups in India. The group has over 18 hospitals with 4800 beds in India and Bangladesh. It includes Care Group of Hospitals spread across multiple locations in India, KIMSHEALTH Group with Hospitals across Kerala and Evercare Group with Hospitals in Bangladesh.
