32 years and the journey continues...

With the Grace of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba the hospital will be celebrating its 32nd anniversary on the November 22, 2023. It is time now for us to reflect on the events of the years gone by. We, therefore, take a look at the work done by the hospital in the past 32 years and afterwards we will spend some time on the facilities acquired by the hospital in the past year and its achievements. 

The SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram continued to maintain high standards of patient care by providing completely free treatment to all in-patients and out-patients irrespective of caste, creed, race, religion, ethnicity and nationality. The completely free treatment includes diagnosis, surgery, interventions, medicines and diet. During the past 32 years 40,42,733 outpatient consultations took place and 288,820 surgeries and procedures were performed.  A total of 8,22,292 diagnostic tests were performed for the patients.

During the past year that is in 2022-2023, 1,26,180 patient consultations were carried out and 9,269 surgeries and procedures performed by the departments of CTVS, Cardiology, Urology, Plastic Surgery, Ophthalmology and Orthopaedics and Gastroenterology  put together.

In the year 2022-23 the SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram has saved a total of Rs. 35,20,60,280 (more than Rs 35 Crore) ($ 4,400,753.5) of the patients. This figure swells up to Rs 1095,53,70,587(more than 1095 crores) ($136,942,132.33) when looked at the savings from the inception of the hospital till date. 

New Equipment and facilities

Till November first week two advanced machines were inaugurated at the hosptial. We have already read about the modern Heart Lung Machine in the first story of this issue, the other machine to be inaugurated was the state-of-the-art Optical Coherrence Tomography machine. 

Advanced Optical Coherrence Tomography (OCT) Machine inaugurated

With the Blessings of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba the Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) machine worth Rs. 60 lakh was inaugurated at the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Prasanthigram, Puttaparthi in the month of January.

The OCT machine was inaugurated by the Managing Trustee of SSSCT, Sri R J Rathnakar in the presence of the Director of SSSIHMS, Prasanthigam, Dr. Gurumurthy, the Head of Department of Ophthalmology, Dr. Anuj Sharma and  other senior staff members of the hospital. 

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive imaging method that uses reflected light to create pictures of the back of ones eye. It can be used to diagnose and manage diseases like diabetes-related retinopathy and glaucoma.

Manufactured by Carl Zeiss the OCT machine has many advanced features like Enhanced Depth Imaging (EDI) through which the machine can analyse beyond the layers of the retina. Also the system comes with a Fast Track feature which helps in reducing the eye motion artifacts and thereby improving the accuracy of the diagnosis. In the past 11 months the new OCT machine has been used to perform over 6000 scans for patients. 

Achievements

Environment Protection Award to SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram

In the month of June 2023, with the Divine Blessings of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, received an award in recognition of "clean and green initiatives undertaken with best practices in environmental management" on June 05, 2023 - World Environment Day.

Dr. Gurumurthy, Director, SSSIHMS , Prasanthigram and Sri P. Haranath, Chief Engineer of SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram received the award from Sri Peddi Reddy Ramachandra Reddy, Hon’ble Minister for Energy, Environment, Forest, Science & Technology, Mines & Geology, Andhra Pradesh, at Vijayawada during a function conducted by the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board. The award was in recognition of the unmatched work undertaken by the hospital in protecting the environment. 

The hospital has a captive solar plant providing almost 60 % of the electricity for the hospital needs. Secondly check dams have been constructed at various locations of the hospital campus to make sure that rain water can be harvested and used for various requirements. Thirdly an afforestation programme started many years ago has helped in bringing back the green cover back to the campus. 

Research paper on Avascular Necrosis of Femoral Head in Adults by Department of Orthopaedics, receives  All India Gold Medal

With the Blessings of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Dr. Prakash Khanchandani, the Head of Department of Orthopaedics, SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, received a gold medal for his presentation on " Integrated Systems Analysis of Avascular Necrosis of Femoral Head in Adults: Clinical relevance, critical pathways, potential mechanisms, bio markers and Therapeutic Targets".

The Gold medal was presented for the prestigious Dr. Balu Sankaran Oration on Basic Science and Orthopaedic Research by the Indian Orthopaedic Association, during the Annual Conference held from December 1-3, 2022 at Amritsar, Punjab.

The presentation is a result of around 10 years of Collaborative research between the SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram and the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prasanthi Nilayam. The research involved an Integrated Systems Biology approach to unravel the mysteries of Avascular Necrosis of Femoral Head in adults and has been published twice in internationally acclaimed journal of Scientific Reports, Nature and will be soon implemented in the treatment protocols.

The impact of this research can change the treatment protocol of this debilitating disease, thereby increasing the positive outcome of Regenerative treatment in young patients, who are usually bread winners of the society, thereby having a great social impact. The ground breaking research and the results were widely appreciated by the National and International faculty members at the conference.

Academics

As on 31.3.2022, 35 postgraduate students were undergoing training to pass the all India examination to qualify for obtaining the certificate of Diplomate of National Board in various disciplines approved by the National Board of Examinations, New Delhi, which also includes super-specialties in medical sciences viz., Cardio Thoracic and vascular surgery, Cardiology, and Urology and sub-specialities of Ophthalmology, Anaesthesiology and Orthopaedics.

Jai Sai Ram