Message from the CEO

Letter from the CEO

Why Helix Healthcare and why Post-Acute Care?

Malaysia has developed an enviable track record in the private healthcare / acute hospital services sector. Faith-based charitable hospitals such as Assunta and Adventist were the first movers in this space. Private hospitals then started in the early 1980s in tandem with Malaysia’s growing middle-income population, which had the discretionary income to pay for private health services. As this area grew, so did the medical insurance market – tailoring offerings both to private retail customers as well as to corporations to enable such companies to offer private health care coverage as part of their compensation packages.

This, in turn, fueled further growth in the hospital’s sector, resulting in the major networks of hospitals now – IHH Bhd, Kumpulan Perubatan Johor, Columbia Asia for instance. So why do we need Post-Acute Care facilities? As an operator of private hospitals, I know too well that hospitals are for acute care – e.g. admissions for specific procedures or surgical operations. Once that procedure has been performed, hospitals are not set up (facility or skills mix) to consider the longer-term needs of the consumer/patient. Take a common example – an older person who has fallen and suffered a hip fracture. The surgery will often be performed within the first 24-48 hours of the fracture, and the patient would be judged ready to go home by the surgeon within 3 to 5 days of that surgery. Immediate questions are: can the person get out of bed unaided, sit out, get to the toilet, and who will help restore muscular strength of the affected leg to enable all these activities? Who will assess if the person is capable of coping at home – are there stairs to be tackled / what about toileting needs / is there any help at home to oversee the recovery process and if there is a home help, is she competent in the rehabilitation and medical care of this patient?

This is, unfortunately, a very common scenario – I speak from personal experience and from all the anecdotal stories from friends and family. And having been a hospital CEO for several years, I am cognizant that this is a major service gap in most if not all hospitals. We must develop this new area of targeted step-down facilities & services if people are to have active lives after a disability (bone fractures, strokes, major cardiac events for instance). We have the added urgency of Malaysia’s significantly aging population. We need to act now.