Luxury: High-End Health Care
"It's not just any colonoscopy: it's a state-of-the-art, noninvasive version (for $1,500 extra), followed, perhaps, by a nap at an adjacent Four Seasons hotel. That's how 83-year-old billionaire turned wellness guru David Murdock envisions it when his California Well Being Institute opened in Westlake Village, north of L.A.
Murdock, the chairman and CEO of the Dole Food Co., sees the $500 million luxury complex as the first piece of a "medi-hotel" mini empire where the well heeled can check into the Four Seasons for the weekend and get things ranging from MRIs to teeth whitening".
---an article that appeared in Newsweek, November 2006
Is this just one off story .No?
Drive in into the foyer of a magnificent building located in the prime Jabriya area on the fourth ring road of Kuwait City, Passing by a giant screen television and the beats of eastern classical music and enter into a showcase of great art, a purveyor of privacy and a sanctuary of refined taste. You might think you’ve just entered a luxury boutique hotel but you are standing in the soaring lobby of the elegantly designed Mother and Child hospital-the Royale Hayat Hospital…..World's first total luxury healthcare facility.
As you walk through the reception you are not greeted by the familiar stench of antiseptic but instead by beautiful hostesses with their warm smiles, a waft of fresh cut flowers and natural oils and the lilting live tunes of ‘Kim’ music that take you through to what can only be described as a luxury healthcare experience.
Royale Hayat Hospital is the best example of a hospital in Kuwait and probably in the Middle Eastern region that blends the artistic and human scale to find truth in the therapeutic features of hospital design. The hospital pampers the woman guests (they don’t believe in calling them patients) to a new level of service quality never seen or experienced before. For the new would be mother, the hospital clinical and hospitality staff member's assists in every step of the wondrous journey of bringing a new life into the world; from conception and planning, pre-natal counseling and services to birthing and post natal care. The new mother is provided with a choice of exotic spa treatment by the well trained all woman team of Thai therapists from the world famous Banyan Tree chain of Spas. The hospital hospitality staff also helps in planning in detail, every aspect of the celebrations post the event. The two beautifully decorated party halls provide all the services worthy of a royalty.
All the rooms in the hospital, named after exotic flowers, are equipped with state of the art patient and infant safety systems, web cams to capture every movement of the child when in the nursery, wifi enabled and touch screen monitoring systems and seven star luxury room services. The rooms each of about 1500sqft size is priced from KD 500 TO KD 1300 per day (one KD is about Rs 175). The hospitality services managed by the Banyan Tree Spa and Resorts ensure that each guest's individual needs are met. These include customized upholstery and linen in the rooms, redecoration of the rooms based on color and themes, personalized butler services and extending rejuvenation programs like yoga, breathing exercise, meditation etc. Cosmetic surgery, dentistry and beauty treatments are also provided by the medical team at the hospital. Guests in the hospital have access to the elegantly designed theme restaurants Tamarind and Aliwan, both catering exotic Thai seafood cuisines. The Spa located on the first floor of the hospital provides an entire range of rejuvenation programs.
Hospitals and Health Spa's like to the Royale Hayat Hospital are trendsetters of what a segment of customers demand… a market yet to be fully tapped.
luxury health spas pride themselves on the services they offer. If you've ever wanted to be treated like a celebrity, you can definitely find that kind of treatment at a spa like this. Many of them will serve you drinks, food, provide the various services and more and you don't have to do a thing. This is just what you've been looking for; time away from your job, family stresses and anything else that's been causing you tension. You just lay back, relax and let them melt away all your stress and give you the relief you so badly deserve.
Pricing at luxury health spas vary depending on where you go. If you're looking to save money, just call around to the various ones you find and you're bound to find one within your price range. Many of them have package deals that you can choose from or you can just select one or two of their services. Just remember, when it comes to luxury health spas, you don't have to make the money of a celebrity to be treated like one.
A luxury five-star hotel will be built in the heart of the city of Dubai by the region's leading healthcare, wellness, medical education and research facility, the Dubai Healthcare City. The hotel and apartment complex will cater to the accommodation and hospitality needs of our patients and their families, those who would come to DHCC for check-up or for treatment with relatives, or for visiting doctors and faculty.
Announcing details of the project, Saeed Al Muntafiq, Chairman of Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), stated that the premium hotel will be built at an estimated cost of AED 860 million and will be a twin-tower project with one of the towers being a five-star hotel and the other an apartment tower. The hotel and apartments would be connected with glass air-conditioned tunnel to the 425 beds teaching hospital and the on-campus Harvard Medical School Dubai Center.
The twin-tower hotel-apartment project will provide full amenities for visiting patients and families,'Dubai Healthcare City is committed to total quality in all spheres of its activities. The luxury hotel will be no exception to that rule. We are creating the region's centre of excellence in medical, wellness and healthcare practices and we will ensure that all aspects of our work - including the twin-tower hotel project - reflect that -the DHCC Chairman added.
Al Muntafiq said both the luxury 5-star hotel will house 439 rooms and the apartment tower would have 406 units. Two floors in the hotel will be dedicated to a medical centre equipped with special provisions for patients and nurse stations.
The hotel will host medical and pharmaceutical events and has banqueting halls, a business centre, conference rooms as well as restaurants, spas, two swimming pools and a rooftop fine dinning restaurant.
The short-term serviced apartments will cater for families and will have suites, 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms units. The complex will have parking for over 1,200 cars.
'The hotel will be enhanced by the double-height public spaces with a feature that would have the potential to be a lively space offering guests and nearby residential communities a warm and inviting place to visit,' added Al Muntafiq
While upgrading general patient services has been one method healthcare institutions have used to raise money over the past decades, some hospitals are now expanding the concept with the initiation of luxury healthcare programs that include restaurant-quality food prepared in dedicated kitchens by trained chefs. These high-end service and amenity programs typically also include around 20 large rooms that offer multi-star hotel-type accommodations: high-thread-count sheets, solid wood furniture, in-room DVD players and elegant bedside service of gourmet meals prepared to meet different dietary requirements. With suites in some luxury healthcare facilities commanding fees of up to $1,400 a night (out-of-pocket), big money is now on the table for these institutions in the form of new revenue that can help to fund non-profit core services.
In the words of Juliet Da Silva-Innis, executive chef at Mt. Sinai's Eleven West Pavilion, "We make money in order to support other programs that can't."
Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland
Cleveland may not be a community in which one would expect to find one of the country's most upscale healthcare facilities, but as home to the Cleveland Clinic and its Founders Suites, this industrial city on the banks of Lake Erie can boast exactly that.
The suites were first opened as a way of catering to patients accustomed to a high level of service, such as celebrities and dignitaries, many of whom seek out the clinic for its renowned cardiology, urology and neurology services, among others. In order to provide the upscale foodservice many patients expected, a dedicated kitchen was added to serve the Founders Suites after their opening.
Many of the current menu offerings produced by the kitchen are what one would expect to find at a fine-dining restaurant: items such as prime rib, curried shrimp and seafood brochettes.
Often, though, a hospital's luxury foodservice program must satisfy the palates of people other than its patients. One of the challenges specific to catering to VIP guests is that they occasionally bring with them large entourages, which, naturally, need to be fed. In some extreme cases, a hospital's luxury kitchen can be asked to more than double its daily meal production.
"We had the president of the United Arab Emirates here with multiple medical issues [in 2000]," Mahnic recalled. "He was here for four and one-half months. His entourage had the entire floor and we operated three dining rooms. They even spilled out into another unit, where we had to create another dining room." While a challenge, Mahnic said that the Cleveland Clinic's luxury kitchen is able to handle sudden spikes in workload. The facility, she noted, is designed to allow staff to work simultaneously at its different stations: Cold preparation is done at one end of the kitchen, pastry on the other, with production in the middle.
Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
As one of the premier hospitals in the country, it's no surprise that Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital also has one of the top luxury healthcare foodservices in its 15-room Marburg Pavilion.
The facility was opened in 1996, complete with a dedicated kitchen that prepares a wide variety of foods, from lobster tail and filet mignon to tuna salad and hamburgers.
This kitchen is open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Per shift, it employs two cooks, one server and one "utilities person" who specializes in maintaining the facility's sanitation.
Given the size of the staff here, dedicating an employee primarily to cleaning duties might seem like an excessive commitment, but it is understandable given the amount of scrutiny the kitchen is under.
Food safety is the first concern in all hospital kitchens, said Jennifer Ricks, foodservice manager for Johns Hopkins. The kitchen at the Marburg Pavilion, though, is subject to inspection by several different bodies, including OSHA, the city health department and officials of the hospital itself, among others, she stated.
That the facility produces just 100 meals per week makes sanitation easier, Ricks noted, but its high profile within the institution creates added expectations.
"Because we operate a smaller kitchen, it's a lot easier to maintain, but the staff also understand that we have a higher standard to uphold," Ricks commented. "The kitchen is inspected on a daily basis. Members of the hospital's management come and check our sanitation level regularly, so we don't want to be embarrassed by a poor showing."
Though the Marburg Pavilion's kitchen is high-profile, according to Ricks, it isn't a big moneymaker for the hospital. Rather, she commented, it is a self-supporting, customer-service amenity for its VIP patients.
Creating a luxury hospital experience goes beyond meals, however, even for foodservice. Since the pavilion is intended for individuals who need to be hospitalized, their guests must be catered to, as well. The foodservice operators at the Marburg Pavilion, therefore, have set up a free, high-end coffee bar aimed at visitors.
Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City
The Eleven West Pavilion at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital may be the most upscale of luxury healthcare facilities to be found in the country. Costing up to $1,400 per night (non-reimbursable by insurers), Eleven West offers views of Central Park, suites equipped with DVD players and, naturally, excellent food. Menu items include filet mingon, caviar and organic roasted chicken.
Serving 19 rooms, the dedicated kitchen for the pavilion produces around 400 meals per week, including guest orders. According to Juliet Da Silva-Innis, the pavilion's executive chef, that's more than anyone expected and, as a result, the kitchen itself is cramped.
.The facility will have a service manager specifically employed to oversee its hospitality services, which include in-room patient entertainment systems, online ordering, and catering.
The hospital's dedicated VIP floor, meanwhile, will have its own separate entrance, lift and limousine parking, along with VIP suites, presidential suites and a royal suite, with access to a private swimming pool and gymnasium.
The $100 million (Dh367.8 million) state-of-the-art hospital will be among the largest and most advanced private healthcare facilities in the region.
The City Hospital, with 210 beds, offers sophisticated diagnostic facilities and specialised treatment in a wide range of medical disciplines to ensure that each patient receives the highest available standard of healthcare.
Management
The City Hospital is managed by EHL Management Services (formerly known as Welcare World Health Systems), a joint venture between the South African private hospital group, Medi-Clinic Corporation, Dubai-based Varkey Group and General Electric.