Apollo Hospitals Group

Now one of Asia’s largest private healthcare groups, Apollo began in 1983 as a 150-bed hospital. Today Apollo Hospitals Group includes 54 hospitals in India and overseas, has a total bed capacity of 8,700, offers 55 medical specialties, and annually treats more than 255,000 inpatients and 2.2 million outpatients.

Apollo has seven JCI-accredited hospitals, four of which welcome an especially high volume of international patients. Apollo’s hospitals in Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Hyderabad treat more than 50,000 international patients from 55 countries every year.

Leading Specialties

Heart Institutes. The Institutes of Cardiology and Cardio-Thoracic Surgery at Apollo Hospitals form one of the largest cardiovascular groups in the world. With locations in Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, and Bangalore, the institutes have collectively performed more than 100,000 heart surgeries, including coronary artery bypass, heart valve surgery, heart transplants, and minimally invasive cardiac surgery. Cardiologists at the institutes have performed over 85,000 angiographies and over 50,000 coronary angioplasties. Only ten other hospital programs in the world claim such a high volume of procedures. The institutes have a 99.6 percent success rate for cardiac bypass surgeries, the vast majority of which were beating heart surgeries.

Apollo’s Heart Institute in Chennai uses a 320 Slice CT Scanner, which is the seventh of its kind in the world, and the first in India. This scanner images the entire heart in a single rotation showing not only the entire organ, but also the changes in the organ over time. The Chennai Heart Institute is also the first in India to use 3D mapping technology to support arrhythmia management. Using this in combination with radiofrequency catheter ablation, institute physicians are able to treat arrhythmia with an exceptionally high level of accuracy.

Ongoing research at Apollo is focused on finding long term alternatives to heart transplants, including treatments such as stem cell therapy. Institute cardiologists are currently honing the still-experimental procedure of trans-myocardial revascularisation that uses stem cells from bone marrow.

Cancer Institutes. Apollo’s Cancer Institutes in Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Hyderabad offer comprehensive medical, surgical, and radiation oncology services. The institutes emphasize a multidisciplinary approach combined with the latest treatment technologies. Cancer Institutes in Delhi and Hyderabad use the Novalis Tx radiotherapy and radiosurgery system to eradicate tumors without incision. The institute in Chennai uses the CyberKnife Robotic Radio Surgery System to treat tumors anywhere in the body with a high level of accuracy. Additional treatment options include LINAC (linear accelerator for radiotherapy), brachytherapy, and stereotactic radiosurgery.

Apollo’s Bone Marrow Transplant Units perform both autologous and allogenic bone marrow transplants. The units treat acute myeloid leukemia, lymphatic leukemia, and Hodgkin’s disease. Although still experimental, bone marrow transplants have yielded hopeful results for genetic disorders such as thalassemia and sickle cell anemia. Apollo’s Cancer Institutes’ have performed over 150 bone marrow transplants with a high success rate.

Institutes of Orthopedics. Surgeons at Apollo’s Institutes of Orthopedics in Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, and Bangalore, perform a wide range of procedures, including major joint replacement, arthroscopy, delicate hand surgery, spine surgery, limb lengthening, and treatment of bone tumors. Institute surgeons use computer navigation and imaging equipment with robotics-assisted technology to improve outcomes. Apollo’s Institute of Orthopedics in Chennai has performed thousands of hip resurfacing surgeries, with a success rate of 99 percent.

Transplant Institutes. Apollo’s Transplant Institutes in Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, and Bangalore, have collectively completed over 6,700 kidney transplants and over 775 liver transplants. In 2010 the institutes performed more than 746 transplants making the group one of the world’s largest transplant programs and the busiest outside the US. The institutes have a 90 percent success rate and are known for several firsts in India, including the first pediatric liver transplant, the first adult liver transplant, the first cadaver liver transplant, the first transplant in acute liver failure, and the first liver-kidney transplant.

Additional Specialty Centers

Apollo offers several additional centers of excellence and specialty centers. Some of the most recognized include the Institute of Neurosciences, the Center of Cosmetic Surgery, the Center for Assisted Reproduction, the Institute of Preventive Medicine, the Institute of Gastrosciences, and the Center for Gastroenterology and Hepatology, which performs weight loss surgery.

Outcomes and Infection Control

Apollo’s ACE@25 program tracks twenty five clinical indicators, including complication rates, mortality rates, one year survival rates, average length of stay after major procedures, hospital acquired infection rates, patient satisfaction, and incidence of medication errors. Results are compared to benchmarks from the world’s best hospitals. Selected results are available on Apollo’s website.

Each hospital in the Apollo Hospitals Group has a comprehensive infection prevention and control program addressing hand hygiene, occupational health, isolation, infectious diseases notification, clinical sample collection, environmental hygiene, antibiotic usage, and infection prevention in visitor areas. The program also emphasizes prevention of ventilator-associated infection, surgical site infections, UTI, and intravascular-device-related infections.

International Patient Services

Apollo offers comprehensive international patient services, including appointment scheduling, direct admission, language translation, and support for travel arrangements. Upon arrival, international patients are received at the airport and taken directly to a hotel or hospital. Inpatient rooms are designed to feel more like a hotel than a patient ward and offer satellite TV, internet access, room service, and laundry service.

For patients interested in alternative therapies, Apollo Chennai offers the world’s only comprehensive, hospital-based Wellness Center, occupying a full floor of the hospital. Holistic healing therapies, such as Ayurvedic medicine, aromatherapy, pranic healing, yoga, meditation, and music therapy, are offered to international patients as part of the hospital’s complimentary recovery package.