Acumen Fund

Hospitals for Maternal and Pediatric Care

At LifeSpring, mothers and babies are treated with the highest standard of care.

Despite India's great developmental strides, maternal mortality and morbidity levels remain among the highest in the world. Only 43% of Indian women are cared for by a skilled attendant during birth and more than 100,000 women die every year from pregnancy-related causes.
Public financing and provision of healthcare services have been the basis for Indian government policy, but the public system has well-recognized problems such as lack of access to low-income communities, poor quality and coverage, and an inadequate focus on maternal and child health.
Since few policies clearly define the role of the private sector, many questions have arisen regarding the quality and legality of some private healthcare providers and even their possible exploitation of the poor.

LifeSpring is a network of Maternity and Child Healthcare hospitals that provide vital reproductive and pediatric healthcare to low- and lower-middle-income people in urban and peri-urban areas, with a focus on delivering high-quality, low-cost services to women and children in slum areas.
LifeSpring is a joint venture between Acumen Fund and Hindustan Latex Limited, a public sector company in India. Its model rests on building a chain of small hospitals (20-25 beds) across India.
The rates charged by LifeSpring Hospitals for general ward patients are less than one-third the market rate for normal deliveries and half the rate for caesarian deliveries.

With 65% of every hospital's bed capacity reserved for general ward patients, LifeSpring will create significant social impact. Each hospital has the capacity to serve nearly 10,000 low-income patients every year. LifeSpring also expects to provide outpatient services to more than 500,000 people over five years.
By improving patient outreach and the quality of care available, LifeSpring has significantly increased hospital-supervised deliveries and reduced maternal and child mortality and morbidity rates. Over 70,000 patients were treated and 5,000 surgeries were conducted by Q1 of 2010.
LifeSpring is currently one of the largest maternity care hospitals in South India, and has plans to expand across India. In the future, LifeSpring is considering using a franchising model to greatly expand the number and geographic coverage of its hospitals.