MBA graduates to manage crowds at Mumbai hospital

MUMBAI: Besieged daily by the largest crowds in the city’s healthsphere, authorities at the KEM Hospital in Parel are planning to draft MBA graduates to effectively manage them and the high anxiety levels among patients and their relatives.

Around 5,000 patients — and, at a conservative estimate, an equal number of relatives — visit the BMC-run hospital’s outpatient clinics daily, and most of its 2,000-plus beds are occupied at any given time. Hospital dean Dr Sangeeta Ravat said ‘facilitators’, who must be full-time MBAs, will help new patients through the packed emergency room to admission or a return visit.

KEM Hospital’s experiment is a pilot project and, if successful, will be implemented in other BMC-run hospitals. The service managers should be between 18 and 38, hold a full-time MBA degree, and be willing to work in a three-shift system. The salary for the six-month contract would be Rs 40,000 a month.

Applications are open till November 10 and the managers are likely to start work by December.