Compassionate Care in Action: Scaling Maternal Health Services under Dr. Evita Fernandez’s Leadership
| Case Code: LDEN223 Case Length: 5 Pages Period: 2008-2022 Pub Date: 2024 Teaching Note: Available |
Price: Rs.300 Organization : Fernandez Foundation Industry :Healthcare and Services Countries : India Themes: Leadership & Values, Leadership Style, Women in Leadership,Corporate Social Initiatives |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
Excerpts
The Need for Compassionate Care
Evita strongly believed that people who entered the medical profession did so because of a calling to show compassion, serve, and provide healing to patients. She said that with compassionate care, patients healed faster and consequently their costs were much less. Moreover, doctors who became more caring learned to love even their most difficult patients. There was also research evidence that in case of the most empathetic doctors, there was very little burnout. Evita gained exposure to the importance of compassion and care in patient-doctor interactions early. “St Johns in Bangalore, where I studied between 1969 and 1975, was one of the few colleges that had a paper on ethical medical care. Internship at St Martha’s (Hospital) taught that in practice,” she said. Evita also introduced low cost life-saving practices for premature infants like the Kangaroo mother care (KMC) practices in 2004 as part of the compassionate care philosophy..
Bid to Bring Innovation, High Quality Service Into Healthcare System
A World Health Organization (WHO) report stated that as of 2016, nearly five women died every hour in India from complications developed during childbirth, with heavy blood loss caused by hemorrhage being a major factor. Nearly 45,000 mothers died due to causes related to childbirth every year in India, which accounted for 17% of such deaths globally, according to the global health body. The WHO said the major cause of maternal deaths was Post-Partum Hemorrhage (PPH), defined as the loss of over 500-1,000 ml of blood within the first 24 hours following childbirth..
Challenges
Evita’s journey to promote natural birthing and create awareness about midwifery was not without its challenges. To build a midwife force was not easy either. This was because the pregnant women did not understand what professional midwifery was all about. At the same time, obstetricians were a stumbling block as they were not aware of the kind of training offered as part of the midwifery course..
Future Plans
Fernandez Hospital, founded by Evita, had earned the trust of patients across three generations by upholding unwavering core values. Since its inception in 1948, the hospital prioritized serving patients with integrity, relying on evidence-based practices. It consistently focused on doing what was best for patients, even advocating for midwifery despite potential revenue losses. The hospital's goal was to minimize unnecessary interventions and promote natural childbirth to keep healthcare costs manageable..
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