Open Avenues | India's Women Entrepreneurs

A Healthcare Entrepreneur with a Heart

Ms. Upasana Arora, Healthcare Entrepreneur, Yashoda Super Specialty Hospital

Open Open | 03 Mar, 2023

Ms. Upasana Arora, Healthcare Entrepreneur, Yashoda Super Specialty Hospital

A true leader is one who puts others first and adapts to changes rapidly. Ms. Upasana Arora is a healthcare entrepreneur who has walked the talk of raising the emotional quotient while treating patients with empathy at her hospital. Result: The woman director whose non-medical background was questioned, is now a renowned leader in the Indian Healthcare sector; under whose leadership the level of treatment has been raised and portfolio multiplied at the Yashoda Super Specialty Hospital, the UP-based leading hospital chain.

A stern and ardent supporter of affordable medical care and facility.

She is a passionate leader with the utmost focus on patient safety and providing quality healthcare service at affordable prices. A staunch supporter of women empowerment, Upasana lives by the principle of providing the best possible healthcare to the patients, who knock on the door of her hospital and ensuring that they leave the hospital with a smile of satisfaction and happiness. Asking for inspiration to the youth she said, “Healthcare is a great industry, The joy of giving care and life surpasses many others. Also, there are less glass ceilings for women here.”

Contrary to the field that she chose to build and establish her career in, the zealous entrepreneur did her graduation in Educational Training and a Master’s in Political Science. Owning to her education, she started preparing for the UPSC exams but an unfortunate fate took a toll on her life because of the sudden and unexpected death of her beloved mother. Later, she got married and took charge of Yashoda Hospital which was already in function since 1990. To quench her thirst for knowledge, she went to the UK where she enrolled herself into a Lean Management Course from Cardiff University. Her education didn’t stop there. She later opted and successfully completed the CII course. To grasp the knowledge and experience of quality and patient safety, she took her footsteps in the prestigious Harvard Medical School Quality Leadership Program. In order to brush up and hone her skills of leadership and grasp healthcare, she attended MDP programs at IIM Ahmedabad.

A women entrepreneur who was recently felicitated with the Women Eco Forum award employs a women workforce that has outnumbered men workforce in her chain of hospitals.

LEADERTalking about the purpose of her life, she said, “I have always kept spirituality at the core of my heart and believe that God has sent you on this earth for a mission and a larger purpose. I feel privileged to deliver the best medical health care that is affordable and accessible to all no matter what economic background they come from. It is our duty to provide our patients accessibility to the treatment when they come in time of emergency even if they are not in the position to pay the higher fees.”

Ms Upasana Arora joined it in 2000. She worked hard with admin, safety measures, and medicinal departments getting NABH accreditation to her hospital, the first to get accredited by NABH in that area. She thoroughly and diligently went through all the guidelines and study materials provided by NABH that made her aware of patient safety and how to implement that in her Hospitalhospital. There was no stopping after that. She enrolled herself into the NABH-accessor course. She even got an ISQua fellowship and became the first Indian to receive that fellowship.

Yashoda Hospital has been recognized with many awards and under her leadership. Last year, she became the Brand Ambassador of NABH which has helped Yashoda hospital and other Super Speciality Hospitals to reach further heights in the medical world. FICCI FLO recognized her as an ‘Outstanding Woman in Medicine and Healthcare.’ Talking of the awards, she won Business Icon and Global Excellence awards.

Apart from running the Yashoda hospital successfully, her busy life doesn’t stop there as she wears many hats. She is serving as the chairperson for the Delhi chapter in Special Olympic Bharat, ASSOCHAM Empowerment Council and Vice President of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. She is also associated with FICCI as a co-chairperson for medical value travel and tuberculosis advocate with an NGO, Union.

She is a stern and ardent supporter of affordable medical care and facility. Keeping the promise of increasing the number of beds in the hospitals, in the coming time, she will be adding 1200 new beds to the Yashoda infrastructure along with the air ambulance and helipad for priority care.

She has used cutting-edge technology to improve the medical facility of the patients. Talking of the different transplants, she has the procedure of kidney transplant at her hospitals and been relentlessly working to incorporate other transplant procedures like the heart transplant, liver transplant and lung transplant.

The Director of Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital, a leading UP-based hospital chain that is present in Kaushambi with other branches in Nehru Nagar, Dr. Upasana Arora is actively involved in the social work and is part of Beti Padhao and Beti Bachhao’ campaign. She shared her thoughts on the experience and said, “I was glad and elated to see the acceptability of a newborn infant girl that took birth in a hospital by not only the women but men. We are clearly heading towards a society that is changing and moving towards a progressive direction. From aircraft to every other field, women are ruling. A residential girl school in Loni that I adopted recently has girls who have dreams in their eyes and want to achieve big in their lives.”

Yashoda Hospital has been recognized with many awards and under her leadership. Last year, she became the Brand Ambassador of NABH which has helped Yashoda hospital and other Super Speciality Hospitals to reach further heights in the medical world.

The women entrepreneur who was recently felicitated with the Women Eco Forum award employs a women workforce that has outnumbered men workforce in her chain of hospitals. She believes that the rapidly growing Indian population is burdening the governmental medical infrastructure. This was clearly seen during the pandemic time and private hospitals bore the baggage to ease the government hospitals from the burden. She already accommodates 700 bedded facility at Yashoda and working towards adding 1200 more beds to it. She recently presented at the G20 Sherpa and is very happy with her experience in Trivandrum, where all guest countries appreciated Indian hospitality and the development witnessed in the last few years. Healthcare, Indian culture and women empowerment are issues close to her heart. She loved the beautiful representation of Indian culture at G20 meet. Commenting on the Union Budget 2023, she said, “It has a lot of focus of healthcare and the government plans to open 157 nursing and medical colleges. I am happy with the focus on healthcare. However, GST remains a challenge as hospitals cannot levy GST but pay it on all equipment and medicines. ”

Ms Upasana Arora feels the need for a good education, health and safety facilities for women to grow and excel in their professional lives. For her, safety is the foremost concern to shed the fears of the girls and that would lead to excellence in their education. Pregnant women need to be educated about health, hygiene and nutrition as malnourishment leads to further problems. All her experience comes from working for NGOs in the area of child and women development.

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