Subang Jaya Medical Centre (SJMC) Committed to Driving Growth of Medical Tourism

Subang Jaya Medical Centre (SJMC) Chief Executive Officer Mr Bryan Lin receiving the Flagship Medical Tourism Hospital plaque from the Minister of Health, Yang Berhormat Dr. Zaliha Mustafa.

Subang Jaya Medical Centre (SJMC), one of the country’s leading private hospitals, is among the four finalists that have been shortlisted for the flagship medical tourism hospital programme by the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council.

Running from this year until 2025, the programme aims to establish Malaysia as a globally renowned destination for healthcare travel, delivering exceptional end-to-end patient experiences anchored in medical and service excellence as well as international branding.

As a finalist for the programme, SJMC now aims to help the country’s medical tourism industry expand and is committed to raising the bar of excellence by reinforcing Malaysia’s position as a safe and trusted destination for healthcare.

“We are tasked, along with the other finalists, with driving direct investments in healthcare of up to RM250 million per hospital and increasing the nation’s revenue from healthcare travellers by 30% over the next three years,” says Bryan Lin, CEO of SJMC.

SJMC is the flagship hospital of Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care — a joint venture between Ramsay Health Care Australia and Sime Darby Malaysia — and it has seen a double-digit growth rate with regard to medical tourists, which is higher than the national average. The hospital currently receives local patients from all over Malaysia and international patients across the Asia-Pacific, including Indonesia, Cambodia and Bangladesh.

Since its inception in 1985, the award-winning multi-disciplinary tertiary hospital has been providing comprehensive and complex care in all specialities. SJMC has had significant achievements as a trailblazer in many medical milestones, including Malaysia’s first open-heart surgery, stem cell and paediatric liver transplants, adult and paediatric bone marrow transplants and brain neurosurgery, just to name a few.

“In 2021, we continued to revolutionise medical boundaries by performing the country’s first daycare total knee replacement surgery whereby the patient could return home on the same day,” says Lin.

SJMC is also one of the few hospitals in Malaysia that is internationally accredited by Joint Commission International (JCI) and the Malaysian Society for Quality in Health (MSQH). SJMC’s laboratory, meanwhile, has been accredited by the Malaysian Standard (MS) of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 15189 since 2009.

"We are tasked ... to drive direct investments in healthcare of up to RM250 million per hospital and increase the nation’s revenue from healthcare travellers by 30% over the next three years.” - Bryan Lin, CEO of SJMC

CEO: Exciting plans to restore SJMC to former glory

With over 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry, Lin says his ambition is to bring SJMC back to its glory days.

“I would like to see SJMC having integrated healthcare and value-based healthcare all up and running in the next few years. I’m looking at building SJMC’s capability and capacity,” he says.

Lin, who holds a master’s degree in healthcare management from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the US, joined SJMC in 1991 as a financial analyst. He later served at several healthcare facilities in the country, including Gleneagles Kuala Lumpur (formerly known as Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre), Tropicana Medical Centre, Columbia Asia and Sunway Medical Centre, before returning to SJMC as CEO.

Elaborating on his capacity plans, Lin says he intends to expand the current hospital building by adding more beds and floors to accommodate SJMC’s patients.

“In the longer term, this expansion will include acquiring land and constructing two more buildings, so that we can have about 300 more beds (currently, it has 442 beds) to accommodate local and international patients,” he adds.

On capabilities, Lin says he aspires to see SJMC continue to solidify its position as a leading hospital in cancer care and treatment, cardiology, interventional radiology

(IR) and orthopaedics.

“I would like to introduce new technology and new ways of delivering healthcare services — mainly value-based healthcare where we have an integrated system that treats patients holistically. It also means helping them beyond their initial diagnosis and ensuring they have adequate follow-up to help them prevent a recurrence of the disease,” he continues.

Moreover, Lin hopes to establish a few patient touch points that will help SJMC’s patients in terms of navigating their treatment, coordinating their treatment plans, receiving counselling, having a well-established support group and receiving education on their health in general.

In order to realise these ambitions, Lin says it would require cooperation from everyone in the SJMC organisation to provide top-notch service to those who walk through its doors.

“While patient experience and basic amenities are important, people will remember the on-ground experience and the encounter they had with the staff or team that comes into contact with them,” he adds.

“Treating my staff with respect helps them to also be able to treat our patients with respect. Rather than the top management, the real ‘bosses’ are actually our patients as they are the ones who are paying for the treatment they receive from us,” Lin emphasises.

Source
The Edge