Search for hospital beds online

June 30, 2010

Neha Bhayana

MUMBAI:

When someone suffers a heart attack or when a patient under treatment for an ailment such as malaria develops complications, the patient's family members often end up calling various hospitals before they find one with a bed available.

A new website, indiahospitalbeds.org, aims to make the hospital bed hunt less harrowing by providing information on availability of hospital beds at the click of a mouse. The website could reduce the wait to get through a hospital boardline, at a time when any delay could endanger a patient's life.

The website, which started functioning earlier this month, is the brainchild of Malad resident Jerome Quadros. The 58-year-old mechanical engineer, who works in a private firm, is a "social entrepreneur" in his free time. A year ago, he started a website to help people find tiffin providers. "I want to harness the power of the web to improve every day life," he said.

Quadros thought of developing the hospital website when his brother-in-law suffered a heart attack four year ago. "I had to call several hospitals to enquire for free beds. It took just 15 minutes but I was traumatised," he said. The website, which is run as a strictly nonprofit venture so no advertisements are accepted.

Any one can log on and check on category-wise bed availability (standard/deluxe room) without paying any fee or feeling long registration forms.

Currently, information regarding eight private hospitals, including Cumballa Hill, Holy Family, Inlaks, Kohinoor, Criticare, Suchak, Tunga and Sarvodaya, across Mumbai and Thane is available on the site.

"Another five to 10 hospitals will come on board shortly," said Quadros. He hopes to cover hospitals across India in the long term. "We get 10 to 15 calls every day from families, doctors and nursing homes that want to transfer patients. The website will save people a lot of trouble," said Cr Nitin Kadam, director of Vashi's MGM Hospital, which will soon featured on the website.

LOG IN FOR DETAILS

Indiahospitalbeds.org also has the address, contact details of every hospital as well as a list of all facilities available such as ICU and diagnostic laboratory.

Hospital staff simply have to login to the website with a unique password and update their bed availability status.

The website is the brainchild Jerome Quadros.