Delivering the promise of life-saving interventions for maternal and child health care: Cloudnine Group of Hospitals

Much of the recent progress in maternal and child health care has been due to highly technical medical interventions, such as newly developed immunisations and prenatal care. By contrast, maternal and newborn health has seen little improvement in India. In a study that compared various countries on the basis of maternal and neonatal healthcare solutions available, India fell well below the 100th ranked out of 164. Today, neonatal mortality rates still present graver statistics than post-neonatal deaths, with 7,48,000 newborns still dying each year from largely preventable causes. This has been the trend for last few decades.

Dr R. Kishore Kumar, a global neonatologist always had his heart for his country. Each year when he visited his parents – he used to see the same old stories – this mother died in labour – that baby didn’t survive because the baby was premature etc. He was working in most sophisticated hospitals across the seven seas that everyone thought that things are impossible to see such statistics – ZERO percent maternal mortality and 99.73% survival of premature babies in India of 24 weeks gestation etc. He decided to change that! Dr R. Kishore Kumar set up Cloudnine Group of Hospitals to provide the best maternal, gynaecological, fertility, neonatal and paediatric care in 2007, in partnership with family and friends, later the company was invested by partners like Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital and True North (India Value Fund Advisors previously) and now within 10 years has become India’s premier destination for comprehensive maternal, gynaecological, fertility, neonatal and paediatric care. They have achieved what once thought to be impossible in India – ZERO percent maternal mortality and 99.73% survival for babies including premature babies (though they treat and save premmie babies as premature as 24 weeks weighing barely 500 gms and the size of one’s palm) despite having delivered close to 50,000 babies in the last 10 years since inception. The organisation’s vision is to effectively bridge the gap between Indian and international standards through a combination of clinical excellence, comprehensive care and an atmosphere of well-being, to ensure world-class standards in woman and child healthcare.

Ensuring the well-being of mothers and their newborns

Cloudnine Group of Hospitals provide services for Obstetrics, Gynaecology, Fertility, Foetal Medicine, and Neonatology & Paediatric Care. Cloudnine offers advanced technology to treat premature babies and helps couples with fertility issues fulfil their dream of becoming parents. They also address high-risk pregnancies with a state-of-the-art Neonatal ICU, providing exceptional, comprehensive care for mothers and babies experiencing complex foetal conditions. Driven by the thought that a child is life’s greatest gift and pregnancy is wellness and not illness, they have made this one of the most magical experiences nature can offer, Cloudnine provides world-class medical expertise, advanced facilities, a space filled with love and laughter and staff dedicated to the holistic well-being of both the mother and the baby to ensure a healthy and happy pregnancy.

• Maternity – Cloudnine’s aim is to work in partnership throughout the pregnancy, providing all of the services one can need, including complete prenatal care, preferred or medically required delivery option, and of course, postnatal care.
• Gynaecology – They care for women of all ages, addressing conditions in areas of adolescence, pre-marital counselling, early pregnancy, sexual health, breast care, hysterectomies, urinary incontinence and other gynaecological issues.
• Paediatrics – Their care continues beyond delivering one’s bundle of joy. Cloudnine paediatric care is one of the best in the city, delivered by a team of experts from fields - dermatology, neurology, cardiology and developmental paediatrics.
• Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) – In order to deliver truly reliable intensive care, they leverage the most advanced equipment and proven approaches to critical case management. Their centres are equipped with an Adult High Dependency Unit and a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, certified by the National Neonatology Forum as the highest level of intensive care.
• Fertility – Their specialised fertility experts are highly experienced. The technology and strict processes ensure that their success rates stay amongst the highest in the country. Most importantly, Cloudnine provides a safe, supportive and comforting environment to help through the period.
• Foetal Medicine – At the Department of Maternal and Foetal Medicine, experts in maternal-foetal medicine, foetal surgery, neonatology, and paediatric surgery share a passion for providing exceptional, comprehensive care for mothers and babies experiencing complex foetal conditions or risk factors rendering their pregnancies complicated.
• Stem Cell Banking – Cloudnine has partnered with India’s leading stem cell banks to bring Cryonine. They aim to bring greater transparency in the process of banking a baby’s precious stem cells and help in making an informed decision.

Innovations to deal with the complexities of pregnancy

Before Cloudnine, India didn’t have a specialised mother and child care hospital or institution, so the concept itself was foreign to the nation. As an entity, Cloudnine’s array of initiatives across spheres is a reflection of bias for action. Their suite of maternity programmes, for instance, are the most unique ones in the country including Prenatal Workshops, an award-winning Management of Baby Affairs programme, Prenatal Yoga & Aerobics Sessions, and Baby Shower celebration which together provide expectant mothers with premium professional guidance and care, both sterling ingredients of a healthy pregnancy. Cloudnine always strives to innovate to stay competitive with evolving technologies like:

• Level-III NICU with GE Giraffe incubators, a hi-tech single bed to care for the newborns, which removes the hassle of shifting babies from one bed to another.
• Analytics to figure out the incidence of gestational diabetes in a population set to allow doctors to predict a patient’s propensity to get gestational diabetes.
• Wearable or smartphone-based technology to track vitals and other medical information of pregnant mothers, which will sync information to hospital staff whenever mothers check into the hospital portal.
• Content on an app for patients to understand pregnancy and also connect with their doctors on the app for ensuring simplicity and efficiency.
• Other post-pregnancy services like monitoring the health of the baby through a wearable.

Providing truly reliable intensive care

‘Cure with Care’ - Secret Sauce for Success: Cloudnine shares a personal, special relationship with every guest who chooses to start their journey with Cloudnine. And in doing so, they embark on nine months of wonder, joy, and discovery, together. This helps them to let guests enjoy ‘the Cloudnine experience’ which plays a vital role in building long-term relations.

Clinical Excellence: Cloudnine’s seasoned medical team consists of the best doctors of the country, who are ably underpinned by an extensive panel of specialised nurses. Their superior technology enables them to welcome babies as premature as 24 weeks, and they are always prepared for an emergency with their state-of-the-art Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), labour delivery rooms and operation theatres. They are always reinventing and innovating maternity care in the country. Today, Cloudnine welcomes over 1,000 miracles a month, a testimony of the golden thread of faith that runs through it, binding so many families together.

Customer Centricity: “Our aim is to “Wow” them and to give them an enjoyable and memorable experience. This is our guiding principle in all our decisions”, proffers Dr. Kishore. Cloudnine Companion is always there throughout the pregnancy journey equipping with: Briefing on services, introducing to the team of specialists, keeping expecting mothers updated with upcoming milestones, reminders, etc.

The roadmap ahead

Cloudnine’s journey germinates from the vision of providing premier quality healthcare to women and children that India hasn’t witnessed yet, by thriving to expand their network across geographies by setting up four new facilities each year across the country. “We strive to expand our network across geographies while maintaining our singular focus on women and children. We intend to do this with better partnerships, innovation, and clinical excellence through better systems, quality, and education. We are also looking at opportunities to provide international standards of care to the public through a public-private partnership model. We believe that we have a lot to contribute to Indian public healthcare system where patient care giving can be managed better,” assures Dr. Kishore.

Meet the Healthcare Specialist: Dr. R. Kishore Kumar, Chairman

Dr. Kishore completed his MBBS, DCH & MD (Paediatrics) from India with a Gold Medal in MD from University of Mysore in 1989 and followed it up with a DCH from London. He went on to secure MRCP (Paed) and FRCPCH from the UK, and MRCPI (Paed) and an FRCPI from Ireland. He also completed his Fellowship in Neonatal ICU from Monash University with an FRACP from Sydney, Australia. He has even worked briefly in the USA after having passed his USMLE exam. At the time, Dr. Kishore was amongst the youngest and highest qualified neonatologists in the world. His top most honors to date remain the felicitation he received from the former US President Bill Clinton for his contribution in the field of neonatology.

“Until we reach the unreachable, we have numerous things to do. The fact that we have achieved a polio-free status in India, gives us hope that a single-digit mortality rate per 1000 live births in India is possible very soon.”