Warning – This is going to be a very long but a very comprehensive review.
My Father had a cardiac Incident when he was visiting friends in Agra and thanks to my mothers' prompt and decisive action in a local hospital at Agra, he was stabilized. The larger question after this was to get to my home town of Bengaluru and get his surgery done ASAP. After much deliberations internally within the family, we settled on Fortis Bannerghatta Road which was also close to my Place and whose doctors were highly recommended.
In the below passages, I would like to write down some details of each element of the Fortis chain that we interacted with and my overall rating of these services.
Ambulance Services
Our journey with Fortis Hospital at Bannerghatta Road started at the airport itself as my father was taken directly from the Airport to the Hospital in the Fortis Ambulance. The service was efficient, quick and in peak time Bangalore traffic reached the hospital in less than an hour.
Fortis Interaction Point 1 - FORTIS Ambulance Services
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Emergency ICU Services
The Emergency ICU was our next point of interaction with the Hospital and they were a well-oiled machine fully aware of the situation, asked all the right questions and got to the top of the situation very fast. After assessments they asked us to get him admitted and move him to the Ward.
Fortis Interaction Point 2 - FORTIS Emergency ICU Ward
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Admissions Services
The next step of course was the Admissions in the front of the hospital. Even though it was reasonably late in the night, the admissions was well staffed and I did not have to wait for too long to get the whole process done. The paperwork was easy to understand and easy to fill out. There was some rigidity around the number of attendants per patient and also the fact that they could not be rotated. I give an overall rating of 4 / 5 to the admissions purely because of the lack of explanation provided for the various charges that were placed. I read them and understood them but many others would struggle to make sense of each of the line items. But the Admissions executive I dealt with was very professional and also accommodated my request to add my Uncle for the first night of stay with a promise to change it the next day.
Fortis Interaction Point 2 - FORTIS Admissions Desk
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 Fortis Patient Ward(Floor 6) – 611 and 615
We shifted our father to Room no 611 which was a single private room that I had booked. The room itself was very neat and had a decent amount of space. Apart from the main patient bed, there was an attendant bed and a very comfortable single sofa. The bathroom was clean and neat. The place was cleaned often both in the room and the bathroom and also in terms of removing the garbage etc. We stayed in Room 611 pre-surgery and 615 post surgery. The facilities were excellent.
Entrance to the ward was controlled by some super-efficient set of ward administrators and security guards who handled some tough people very professionally and clearly mentioned to the multiple people why it was not a good idea to have so many people inside the rooms.
The 2 outstanding people I interacted with as Ward Entrance Administrators / Security was Ms Nagamani and Ms Jyothi. These 2 were fantastic in their handling of people and I truly have to applaud the fantastic work they performed. They are a true asset to Fortis. Along with these 2 I would also appreciate the Security guard Rohit.
Fortis Interaction Point 4 - FORTIS 6th Floor Ward Administration
Overall Rating : 5 out of 5 Fortis Patient Ward(Floor 6) – 611 and 615 – Nursing Services
The nurses on the patient ward(Floor 6) were fantastic and they made such an enormous difference to our overall experience. At the end of the day, the nursing staff make the difference between a good experience and a great one. The nurses at Fortis who attended to my father were compassionate, efficient, very helpful and extremely professional and caring. It’s a very tough job that they have and they did it exceptionally well and I would definitely give the nursing dept and the nurses who cared for my father and who interacted with us the maximum points for our overall experience. I would like to place on record the absolutely exceptional service provided by Sumi, Adhira, Janita, Glory, Ramshina, Chandrakala. Each of these nurses deserve a whole lot of praise for their service and I hope they are internally appreciated by Fortis. They made an enormous difference to the quality of our stay.
Fortis Interaction Point 5 - FORTIS 6th Floor Nursing Services
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 Fortis Cardiac Surgery Counsellor
I was asked to get in touch with Ms Shoba – Cardiac Surgery counsellor for a briefing. Ms Shoba provided all the necessary inputs, answered all the questions and was always available for any resolution. I was never in a situation where I needed her input and she was unavailable. She provided excellent guidance both pre and post surgery and greatly facilitated our journey in what was a very stressful situation for us. She also guided and helped in many of the post surgery Insurance discussions with the provider and made sure that we were able to focus on the core important things. Another person in Fortis who made a fantastic difference to the quality of our stay there.
Fortis Interaction Point 6 - FORTIS Cardiac Surgery Counsellor
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 Fortis Cardiac Surgeons
The most important decision for us to come to Fortis Bannerghatta Road at the end of the day was the Cardiac surgeons. We had internal connects within the family and our family member(Dr Manoj – Anesthologist) recommended Dr Murli Manohar very highly and this was also confirmed by other family members. So it was purely based upon the reputation of the Cardiac surgeon that we decided to come to Fortis.
Out first interaction with Dr Murli was at the Patient ward and he was fully updated and aware of the situation in which my father was brought in. He provided us a full breakdown of the situation and also the best course of action to be followed. They had a set of tests to perform after which he would finalize the best course of action. Even the decision to go for the bypass instead of the Angioblasty was explained in detail and made perfect sense to us. Apart from the medical conversation, he also provided much needed succour and relief to my mother and father and put their doubts to rest. He came across as extremely confident, skilled and also with a caring touch that understood the sentiments of his patients. Both Pre and post surgery our interaction with Dr Murli was excellent and we placed our complete faith in his hands. We owe a mountain of gratitude to him for his exceptional skill combined with a compassionate approach.
Working with him closely and also interacting with us extensively was Dr Vishak who spent a lot of time detailing the procedures, the potential risks, the pre-requisities, the after surgery guidelines and he was always available and ready to answer all and any of our questions.
Apart from this, we also interacted with Dr Srinivas Prasad who was the cardiologist and he was also extremely professional and provided all the required information to us on the approach to be taken(either angioblasty or Bypass)
Pre-Surgery we were also visited by doctors who would be performing the surgery including Dr Simha( Main Anaethologist) and a couple of other doctors. Once again they were fantastic in clearly mentioning to us the procedure, what to expect and put our mind at ease.
All in all, the entire team of the Cardiac Surgeons, Cardiologists, anaesthesiologists and other doctors deserve nothing but the highest praise for their work.
Fortis Interaction Point 7 - FORTIS Cardiac Surgery and Cardiology Teams
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Fortis Operating Theatre Staff
The surgery was completed over a period of 7 hours totally and it was a very stressful time for us waiting. It was a successful surgery and after around 5 hours, Dr Murli called us in and provide an update on the same before the rest of the surgery was completed. This gave us a lot of relief. Post surgery, Dr Vishak provided more detailed updates and we were allowed to visit my father in the Cardiac Surgery ICU. I would like to really appreciate 2 of the cardiac OT nurses – Maitra and Sheena who took care of my father when he was his most uncharacteristic self under the influence of the anaesthesia. He was afraid they were operating on him again and was being difficult and they handled him with a lot of patience and understanding. This job requires so much compassion and patience and their role was extremely critical and I found them to be extremely caring, compassionate and professional.
Similar to the Patient Ward Administrators / Security we had a 2 people outside the Operating theatre manning the gates and they were also extremely proficient and handled many agitated and very impatient relatives of the patients very well. The security guard was Suraj and there was another lady(whose name unfortunately I was not able to collect) who were brilliant and deserve a lot of appreciation.
Fortis Interaction Point 8 - FORTIS Operating Theatre Staff
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Fortis Post Surgery Rehabilitation Team
After the surgery we were visited by a team of doctors and critical staff members that helped us greatly to understand the next steps. This is especially in the areas of Nutrition(very ably led by Dr Shalini and Dr Avani) along with the Phsiotherapy team of Dr Anjana, Pratyush and Karthik. All of them were amazing and provided us with detailed explanations on all aspects of exercise, physiotherapy and nutritional requirements. They showed exemplary care and compassion and were always available to provide any assistance across the board. An incredible team indeed.
Fortis Interaction Point 8 - FORTIS Cafeteria
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Fortis Cafeteria
For the attendants and the family support members, the common point of rest was the 5th floor cafeteria and the absolutely fabulous Shabari Café there which served delicious and sumptuous food through the day. The quality of the food was top-notch and they also had delivery services to the rooms. The menus were constantly changing through the day and the service here was also fantastic. They have taken the concept of In-hospital canteens away from dreary horrible food to almost a destination to eat! It was that good.
Fortis Interaction Point 8 - FORTIS Cafeteria
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Fortis Customer Experience Staff
Last but not the least, I would like to make a special mention of the Fortis customer experience staff whom we interacted with – Ms Chetana. She was in our ward every morning without fail asking us if we needed any help, what could be improved and how she could help. One of the days, Ms Chetana also got in a guitar wielding singer who sang for the patients in the ward. For absolute music lovers like us, listening to those 5 minutes of songs in what is always a serious hospital ward was such a wonderful experience and got a huge smile to my father’s face.
Fortis Interaction Point 8 - FORTIS Customer Experience
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
OVERALL SUMMARY
I have provided this exhaustive review because it is important to appreciate the services of people who make a difference in our lives(even if we pay for these services). The people I mentioned in this review are the people whom I sought out and took names from. However I found that across the board, my experience and that of my family was absolutely fantastic and every aspect of the Hospital worked extremely well with each other.
My experience was exceptional and in the extremely stressful and difficult situation that my family was in, this hospital was almost like a safe house and provided us with comfort, solutions and eventually a way to get our father back home much much better than when we got him in here.
Exceptional Hospital with Exceptional service across the Board.
Thank you and Best Regards,
Saptagirish Noshikunte
(Son of the Patient – N R Kannan)
