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Metropolis Health Services (I) Ltd, a leading corporate chain of
diagnostic centres across India, has announced a tie-up with
Star Clinics, a primary care clinic with a presence in Tamil
Nadu and Kerala. With a leading player like Metropolis joining
hands with Star Clinics, people walking into Star Clinics now
can avail of medical laboratory services which is on a par with
national/international standards, said Dr G S K Velu, managing
director, Metropolis Health Services, in Chennai.
"The scope for the tie-up is to establish specimen collection
centres or basic lab at the Star Clinic premises to support the
facility in terms of lab services. The specimen collection
centres will be set up by us at Star Clinics located either in
the same cities where Metropolis has a processing facility or
where there is a possibility to transport specimens and deliver
reports to Star clients within a stipulated time as demanded by
the clinical requirement."
Further to this, Metropolis will also take
care of arrangements for all facilities for sample collection
and transport to the nearest processing lab. Trained and skilled
technologists will be appointed to handle the specimen
collection and sample processing.
In addition to this, Metropolis will also set
up necessary IT infrastructure at the centre to provide web
reporting and online sample registration for improving report
turn-around time and avoiding transcription errors. Test charges
will be according to the prevailing Metropolis Directory of
Services.
"With Metropolis coming into our fold, we are
confident in scaling new heights and providing holistic health
care services to our Star Clinic customers at an affordable
price. Besides the technical know-how, excellent customer
relations that Metropolis is recognised for, we at Star like to
believe that this tie-up will open a whole gamut of business
opportunities for both the entities," said Jagannathan,
chairman, Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Ltd.
Metropolis will also set up basic labs in
Star Clinics that are located in cities/towns not falling in the
direct catchment area of existing Metropolis processing centres.
The laboratory is spaced out over 700-900 sq ft and is centrally
air-conditioned, according to Metropolis specifications.
Metropolis will also be responsible for
branding and marketing with Star for promotion of these
ventures. In-house reports will go under the banner of 'Star
Clinics in association with Metropolis' model. All medico-legal
issues related to lab reports will be taken care of by
Metropolis.
Metropolis Health Services (I) Ltd was
founded by Dr Sushil Shah in 1981. India's first corporate
diagnostic centres chain with global presence like Sri Lanka,
UAE, South Africa, US and Thailand, Metropolis provides over
3,600 specialised tests under a single roof ranging from
oncology to genetics, molecular biology and immunoassays using
best-of-breed and latest diagnostic equipment. Metropolis is a
preferred referral centre for more than 20,000 laboratories,
clinicians, hospitals and research institutions across the
nation. The CAP, CLIA (USA), NABL accredited and ISO 9002
certified Metropolis chain of laboratories has over 350
franchisees and is a preferred partner for providing quality
testing to over 10,000 referral network across the country.
Star Clinics was launched in May 2007 as a
part of the Star Group. This was launched with a specific idea
of spreading health care to all sections of society at an
affordable cost. They have tied up with Star Health and Allied
Insurance Company to provide support starting from pre-screening
till the claim settlement wherever they have their clinics. Star
Clinics are provided with multi-speciality outpatient facility
and are expected to have their presence all over the country as
early as possible.
R Rangaraj
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