IJN’s CEO banks on striking the balance between top notch care and competitive pricing

Its differentiating factor is also its competitive edge.

The 432-bed Institut Jantung Negara (IJN) is Malaysia’s premier heart centre and one of the largest heart centres in the region. Healthcare Asia interviewed IJN’s CEO Datuk Dr Mohd Azhari Yakub to get a glimpse of what it’s like leading Malaysia’s national referral centre for cardiovascular disease.

HCA: How do you plan to increase your growth and success in Malaysia?

We believe in providing high quality care with competitive pricing. We are not selling our services based on prices. Quality comes first, while cost is secondary. Recently, we had doctors coming from Australia who dubbed IJN the ‘Cleveland Clinic of Asia’ because of the excellent quality of work we do here and our well-trained staff. Such acknowledgement is not new to the institute, as we benchmark ourselves against European and US standards including the Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation that is recognised as the gold standard in global healthcare.

HCA: What issues do you foresee IJN facing this year and how do you plan to solve them?

2015 was a tough year for Institut Jantung Negara as expected due to the implementation of the goods and services tax. However, we are also bracing for another difficult 2016 as the problem is compounded by the economic slowdown and weak ringgit. We are well aware that the public is cost-sensitive because of the current economic climate and high cost of living. The main issue in 2016 will be containing the costs so that we can pass on these cost savings to our patients.

Nevertheless, we see these challenges as an opportunity to position IJN as a quality alternative to private hospitals through our competitive prices. We keep the prices competitive by establishing a mechanism that reviews processes in a methodical manner so we can identify areas in which to reduce operating costs and increase efficiency, translating to lower costs. This mechanism has already yielded good results. Since late 2013, IJN has been investing about RM44m in upgrading its information system so it can move forward in its customer experience.