You are the general manager of the biggest provider of premium care in the Czech Republic and you have been working in the field of healthcare for more than twenty years. What led you to this profession?

After returning from Canada in 1997, I began working at a pharmaceutical company, where I got to know the future head of the company Medicover. He offered me the opportunity to manage a small clinic in Brno, and that’s how it all began. Following the subsequent mergers and acquisitions, I found myself here. Canadian Medical then became part of the EUC group. Once you have started working in the healthcare field, you will most probably stay in it. Without exaggeration, I can say that getting up in the morning suddenly has deeper meaning. And the years have gone by. In that time, I’ve given birth to and raised two daughters. One of them even graduated a few months ago.

Managing such a large organisation requires tremendous commitment. How do you manage to find a balance between work and your personal life?

An important prerequisite is that I like to manage (laughter). I commute between Prague and Brno and I drive hundreds of kilometres every month. On the D1 motorway, I relax, as I have three hours only for myself. I spend a lot of time on the phone – I take care of urgent issues at work and discuss family matters with my mother. 

Canadian Medical arose out of the need to provide foreigners in the Czech Republic with the same level of care that they were accustomed to abroad. How do you see its legacy today.

That takes us back to the beginning of the nineties, when a group of Canadian doctors established a small clinic intended primarily for expats who came to work in Prague after the revolution. They required healthcare at the level they were used to in Canada and the US. And that was a huge challenge for the Czech healthcare system. Not in terms of expertise, which was at a relatively high level, but in the standard of services as a whole, including modern clinic equipment and the staff’s language skills. Our company is proud of its history and is aware of its roots, so the original name was retained even after the change of ownership.

How do you understand the shift from foreign to Czech clients from the perspective of the company’s history?

The ratio of foreign and Czech clients has changed significantly over the years. Today, Czechs make up a slight majority of our clients. These are people who know the value of their time and require quality at all levels. However, we remain the first choice for foreigners.

Who are your Czech clients?

It’s a very diverse range of clients that changes over time. Before, it was exclusively people in the top management of companies, lawyers and bankers. Now it’s a cross-section of all age categories, from children to seniors. We have a lot of clients who started with us as children and are now adults. Some female clients have even give birth to the next generation of our clients.

How do you explain the ever-increasing demand for premium services?

I’ll start somewhat broadly. I recently came across an interesting survey or, better said, a “confidence index” showing that Czechs worry most about their health. Though regular preventive check-ups give them a feeling of confidence, they neglect them. That’s logical, but actually incomprehensible, isn’t it. Our clients are people who are aware that an investment in their health will pay off and will be returned to them many times over. They want to live and age in good health. And there are more and more such people. Of no less importance, it’s true that a healthy person is an economically self-sufficient person. As your family’s breadwinner, you can’t afford to be sick for a long time.

Since its establishment, the network of Canadian Medical clinics has continually expanded. How many clinics are currently in operation and in which locations?

We have six clinics in Prague and one in Brno, and construction of two more is planned. Demand is rising, which pleases us, but it also binds us. In the future, we want to stabilise the number of clinics and centralise care. Our priorities are modern instruments and equipment in the highest quality, experts and specialists. We are the leader and the scope of provided care gives us great opportunities.

Can you describe what premium care at your clinics consists in?

Our DNA comprises medical care at a high professional level and a broad spectrum of expertise. This is the foundation of a sophisticated time-management system from the perspective of the client, as well as of the doctors and our whole system of services. For that purpose, we use modern technologies and AI, thanks to which our clients don’t have to spend a lot of time in waiting rooms, don’t encounter the complexity of the healthcare system, don’t need to seek out specialists and don’t wait months for an examination. We efficiently coordinate care and adapt it to individual needs, and that is a key value. An essential tool for that is our myCANADIAN app, which offers a broad range of functionalities, from basic communication to telemedicine and remote care provided via the Doctor Online 24/7 service. 

It sounds a bit like science fiction. Are you really able to do everything?

At our clinics, we don’t provide absolutely every kind of examination that exists in the Czech Republic. However, we are able to recommend and arrange care at other facilities. I am of the opinion that premium care is a full-fledged part of the Czech healthcare system and we complement each other beautifully. We are able to be beneficial and helpful. We play a key role in the area of prevention and early detection of illnesses. Expanded prevention is part of all of our programmes.

Which medical specialisations do your clinics offer? Which field is the most in demand?  

We offer more than forty medical specialisations. Defining the field that’s most in demand is very subjective. For some, it may be paediatrics, while for others it could be neurology or cardiology. At the Waltrovka clinic in Prague, we have two operating theatres in which we perform scheduled procedures in several fields in the same-day care regimen.

You say that you place emphasis on individualised care for patients at Canadian Medical. How do you maintain the balance between modern technologies and a human approach?

These two aspects are connected. Over the years, we have come to know the needs of our clients and doctors very well. We have identified areas that can be digitalised and we are reducing the administrative burden, while also reflecting the needs of clients. A wonderful example of this is medical documentation, which clients have access to in the app, so they have it available at any time, such as when visiting the emergency room. You can’t imagine what an essential and positive change that is for clients. Just like the possibility to make an appointment via the app for a preventive check-up or dental hygiene, for example, whenever you think of it, even on a Saturday evening. That is also our concept of the human approach.

Do you use the myCANADIAN app yourself?

Of course, as do my daughters. It gives me peace of mind, which is priceless. Murphy’s Law is in force, so ninety percent of the time, your child’s health will start to deteriorate on Friday around four o’clock in the afternoon, when standard clinics are already closed. And you know that you have the whole weekend ahead of you and your nerves can only take so much. Via the Doctor 24/7 service, you can connect with a doctor at any time and consult your child’s health condition. What’s important is that all of our doctors have access to medical documentation and can thus put the worsened health condition in the context of the patient’s overall medical history. Thanks to the app, my daughter’s medical care hasn’t been interrupted during her studies abroad. She can get in touch with a doctor at any time and receive ePrescriptions, and I have the assurance that she is well taken care of.

If you look back at your professional life over the past twenty years, what does your success consist in?

I’m going to go a bit against your question. In healthcare, there is no individual success. It is always the team’s success. And that’s not a cliché. Every detail is important: how our salespeople enrol clients, how our colleague speaks with you on the customer line, whether the doctor is helpful and the nurse smiles. However, this also includes seeming trivialities such as a properly formulated visual identity and the company’s image. It’s a chain in which everyone plays an important role and everyone bears the weight of failure or success. I have had tremendous good fortune with people my whole life and that is true a hundred times over at Canadian Medical. And thanks also to that, we manage to be successful and the whole team deserves much gratitude for that!

You can find the article in VOGUE here.