Healthcare In A Disrupted Ecosystem
CORPORATE SCENE
By Marketing Africa Crew
Marketing Africa crew held a discussion with Mr . Charles Kariuki , Managing Director , AAR Healthcare Kenya Limited on the state of healthcare in Kenya in the face of the pandemic and how the company is wading through the new dispensation and recorded the deliberations as carried here-in .
Kindly share with us a brief on who AAR Healthcare is and how this differs from AAR Insurance . How do you relate with other insurance companies ? How do you interface with the Ugandan and Tanzanian offices ?
AAR Healthcare Kenya is a subsidiary of AAR Healthcare Holdings which has been in operation for over 35 years and has grown to be a leading healthcare provider within the East Africa region . We have a huge network of Out-patient Centers in Kenya , Uganda and Tanzania and currently serving over 600,000 patients annually . In Kenya we have established a footprint of 21 outpatient centers countrywide which are conveniently located in residential and commercial spaces to create the requisite proximity for quality but affordable healthcare services to our patients .
In 2013 the shareholders made a strategic decision to separate AAR Healthcare and AAR Insurance which was also partly influenced by regulatory changes . Prior to the separation in 2013 AAR Health Services housed both the insurance and the healthcare arms of the business . The split happened in 2013 and the two companies are now independent of each other under different shareholders with AAR Insurance offering general insurance services while AAR Healthcare offers a full range of healthcare services .
AAR Healthcare partners with all the major insurance companies in Kenya as well as globally to extend quality and affordable healthcare services within our network of outpatient facilities .
What was the company dream at inception ? In your view is this dream being actualized ?
Not many people probably know what AAR stand for which is Africa Air Rescue ; the acronyms probably best explain the founders dream ; to be the provider of road and air emergency rescue services in Africa but just as we learned from one of the pioneers of strategic management Henry Mintzberg ; “ realized strategies in an organization are a product of both deliberate / planned and emergent strategies ” organizations evolve in response to changing environment as well as changing customer needs . The company dream was to specialize in provision of air and road evacuation services ; but as the market evolved and huge demand for other medical solutions cropped up the business saw the need to diversify and follow the journey to fill the market gap and satisfy the customer demands . It ’ s important to note that despite the diversification we have continued to operate and invest in the state of art emergency and evacuation services .
The AAR was also founded on strong bond with communities where we operate and do our business through the Beckmann foundation . Tree for Health Program ( T4H ) is the Corporate Social Investment ( CSI ) flagship project for AAR Healthcare Limited . The program was started in 1996 to combat environmental degradation by planting trees within schools and facilitate improved health status among school going children and the community and especially the poor communities .
We have kept alive the founders dream through our very strong CSI Corporate Social Investment through Trees For Health program . In recent years , T4H objectives have been achieved with the continuous support from the staff through the employee volunteer program that is entrenched in the staffperformance and evaluation scheme . Our Employee Volunteer Program ( EVP ) ensures staff actively participate in our community engagement . By volunteering 8 hours each quarter to participate in some CSR activities , each staff scores 5 % in the Balance Score Card ( BSC ) used in performance evaluation . In a year AAR Healthcare staff are expected to have volunteered 32 hours each in community engagement . The CSR program has inculcated a culture of giving back to the community thus building brand awareness , brand differentiation , customer engagement as well as employee engagement .
Kindly share about the state of your expansion program and the insights behind it . What plans do you have in the pipeline for the future ?
With the growing need for quality healthcare needs globally and in line with the government Big 4 Agenda to promote quality affordable healthcare , the private sector has been keen on supporting the government achieve this agenda .
With changing consumer needs AAR Healthcare appreciates that most of our clients have a very busy schedule and competing needs and will only source for services that are most convenient to them .
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