Inside Paras Health’s Playbook: How AI and Accountability are Healing Hospital Inefficiencies
By Arunima Rajan
Dr. Shashank Teotia, Group Head, HR, Paras Health talks to Arunima Rajan about how the hospital addresses operational inefficiencies.
What are the most critical operational inefficiencies you believe Indian hospitals must tackle today, and how has Paras Health approached solving them?
Indian hospitals often struggle with three major inefficiencies: workforce deployment, patient throughput, and underutilised infrastructure. At Paras Health, we’ve addressed this through a blend of technology integration, data-driven decision-making, and cross-functional coordination. For example, we standardised workforce scheduling for example: To actively assign staff, we executed an AI-driven workforce management platform that examines previous patient inflow trends, peak operating hours, and specialty-specific needs. Manual, unit-based scheduling was replaced by this system across units to reduce staffing mismatches and streamlined patient discharge protocols. We implemented a digital discharge checklist, daily interdepartmental meetings, and early discharge planning at admission to streamline discharge procedures. Through updated KPIs centred on discharge turnaround time, HR brought staff members into alignment. This process improves patient flow by integrating accountability and encouraging cross-functional cooperation to drive operational efficiency and improving the bed availability.
How do you balance financial prudence with clinical excellence when pursuing operational efficiency, without letting one compromise the other?
At Paras Health, we approach this balance through what we call value-aligned efficiency. Operational savings are not achieved by cutting corners in clinical care. We invest in solutions that improve both cost and outcomes. At Paras Health, our investment in a centralised care coordination program is one instance of value-aligned efficiency. To assist clinicians, we recruited and trained a dedicated team of care coordinators who worked on patient education, follow-ups, and discharge planning. To increase effectiveness, we reorganised roles and put in place focused training programs.
How are you embedding sustainability practices, such as energy management and waste reduction, into everyday hospital operations without raising the cost of care?
Our hospital network adopted a phased, data-driven approach to sustainability. Most of our facilities have solar energy systems, LED-based smart lighting, and sophisticated water reuse infrastructure installed. These initiatives are a component of a larger operational efficiency program that has already produced noticeable financial and environmental gains. Hospitals using these systems have seen observable drops in freshwater and energy use since they were put into place. Crucially, these developments have been made without raising healthcare costs.
Efficiency is often seen as a one-time project rather than a cultural shift. How are you ensuring that efficiency thinking is embedded into the DNA of Paras Health?
At Paras Health, efficiency is embedded in our culture through quantifiable, transparent procedures. We have incorporated certain efficiency metrics into departmental KPIs and individual evaluations, including discharge turnaround time, outpatient wait times, and resource utilisation rates. Our hospital information system keeps track of these, and leadership receives a monthly report on them.A nurse-led project to batch medication requests by shift was one significant micro-innovation that was shared on our internal platform. This showed how little ideas can have a big impact.
Technology adoption can often be patchy in hospital systems. Which specific technologies or tools have given you the highest return on operational efficiency, and why
Our digital HRMS and centralised Hospital Information System (HIS) at Paras Health have produced quantifiable results. Because of automated rostering and biometric integration, payroll processing time and attendance discrepancies have decreased. These tools have increased worker accountability and expedited HR procedures.
Clinically, we've implemented AI-assisted radiology tools for CT scans and chest X-rays, which have increased diagnostic turnaround time and improved preliminary read accuracy, enabling physicians to make quicker, better decisions.
As a CXO, what are the non-obvious risks when driving efficiency programs inside hospitals, and how do you guard against them derailing patient trust or clinical outcomes?
At Paras Health, we understand how "efficiency fatigue" can subtly undermine employee morale and patient confidence. We keep an eye out for early warning signs like an increase in unscheduled absences, a decline in staff engagement survey results, and a rise in workflow stress-related incident reports. We recently implemented a fast-track discharge procedure, but frontline feedback indicated that it resulted in hurried patient encounters. We redesigned the procedure to incorporate time for patient counselling, striking a balance between expediency and compassion while maintaining staff morale and patient satisfaction.
Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest untapped opportunity for Indian hospitals to drive sustainable operational excellence, something that is still being overlooked today?
At Paras Health, we believe that shared-service models offer tremendous untapped opportunities for inter-hospital collaboration. In three hospitals, we've tested centralized procurement and a training hub, which has improved training standardization and completion rates and reduced bulk purchasing costs.
In terms of analytics, we are evaluating predictive tools that use historical trends and seasonal patterns to forecast bed occupancy, intensive care unit demand, and supply utilization.
Proactive staffing, inventory planning, and resource allocation will be made possible by these tools, resulting in more intelligent and sustainable operations.
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