Elevating Operations, Patient Care, and Leadership Across India!

Every hospital has stories behind its walls, patients arriving with hope, staff coordinating under pressure, and countless decisions forming the quality of care. For Dr. Reji Pillai, these stories are the backbone of his work; he sees healthcare through the lens of people first, ensuring operations, strategy, and patient experiences align seamlessly. His leadership goes beyond managing facilities; it shapes environments where care, efficiency, and human connection coexist.

Now, as the Interim COO and the Vice President of Group Operations at IHPL, Dr. Pillai is responsible for a portfolio of over ₹300 crores, which encompasses a multi-specialty hospital, as well as a 74-clinic fertility family of clinics, and a nursing education institution. Each day, he interfaces with board members, department heads, clinical team members, and partners at other organizations to ensure that every operational conversation prioritizes purpose and impact.

“Healthcare becomes meaningful when systems serve people,” he says. “Every process, every policy, every team member plays a role in creating trust and care.”

Scaling Healthcare with Precision

Dr. Reji has guided the expansion of operations from 51 to 72 centers in just seven months. Each new facility carries his vision: efficiency and quality hand in hand. While the growth contributed over ₹15 crores to the revenue pipeline, his focus remains on creating systems where staff can perform their best and patients feel valued.

Digital transformation is central to his vision. Initiatives taken across the operating theatres of both surgery and pharmacy are improving efficiency while driving costs down by over 5 percent. After all, technology, as Dr. Reji discusses, is a tool to enhance human technology work; allowing staff to focus on care instead of their processes of care. After all, every automated record created, every streamlined workstream, becomes part of the patient experience.

Expansion into tier 2, 3, and 4 cities is reflective of his commitment to access. While many leaders in healthcare tend to focus on the bigger metros and primary cities, Dr. Reji wants to build a network where communities around the country have access to good hospitals. He bears full P&L responsibility for expanding these tier 2, 3, and 4 cities, to ensure that growth is an improvement factor in service, compliance, and patient experience overall.

Building Teams That Thrive

For Dr. Reji, leadership is about connection and coordination. Each day, he works with teams from finance, HR, operations, marketing, and digital services. He believes it’s his job to help professionals realize their own professional purpose as part of the bigger picture. Teams respond with engagement and commitment, knowing that their work directly impacts patients and the overall success of the organization.

Prior to his current role, Dr. Reji previously led and enhanced operations at ASG Eye Hospital, managing multiple locations and significantly increasing patient satisfaction while reducing operational costs. At Indira IVF Hospital, he was responsible for driving the opening of 31 fertility centers throughout India in 20 months, achieving 100% operational readiness. His meticulous attention to detail with compliance resulted in near-perfect audit scores from Deloitte, KPMG, and E&Y. In every process he implements, he believes he balances operational integrity with quality patient care.

Patient Experience at the Core

Enhancing patient satisfaction persists to be a fundamental component of his mission. Dr. Reji developed and executed policies that raised patient satisfaction scores by twenty percent in more than a single organization. He believes that every interaction with a patient or the staff caring for them is a chance to express empathy, competence, and dependability. The hospitals he has shaped became ecosystems of care in which patients and the staff that care for them feel supported and valued.

Outside of operations, Dr. Reji mentors and focuses on education and professional development. He is the chair of a nonprofit organization delivering its clients a customized training program, to small and medium enterprises and mid-cap corporations, equipping leaders with practice-based programming, and practical skills needed to operate in today’s business. He is a JV Partner at Fairdeal Production and applies creative strategy to branding and communications. His leadership embodies operational rigor, consideration for individuals, and societal impact.

Recognition for Transformational Leadership

In October 2025, Dr. Pillai received the Healthcare Excellence & Leadership Award for Operational Brilliance. The accolade reflects his ability to scale operations, enhance patient care, and lead with clarity and purpose. He emphasizes that leadership is measured through impact, not recognition.

“Every decision I make revolves around people,” he says. “The strongest systems support staff and patients equally.”

Vision Rooted in Discipline and Humanity

Holding a PhD in Corporate Governance and an MBA with international experience in the UK, Dr. Reji bridges theory and practice. He navigates complex regulations, coordinates diverse teams, and ensures patient satisfaction with clarity and precision.

His leadership philosophy centers on aligning people, process, and purpose, demonstrating that operational excellence and human-centered care strengthen each other.

Moments That Define Leadership

Dr. Reji measures success through tangible results: improved patient outcomes, empowered teams, and efficient systems. One team member shared that after implementing a new workflow, patient wait times reduced significantly, and staff reported higher job satisfaction. These stories reaffirm his approach: effective leadership combines empathy, discipline, and vision.

“Leadership carries responsibility and opportunity,” he explains. “Every action, every decision can influence lives in profound ways.”

Authenticity and Service

Dr. Reji’s credibility comes from his work aligning with his values. He prioritizes serving and listening before personal interests to understand team needs. He builds authentic relationships with staff, partners, and patients by equally sharing success and struggles.

“True leadership reveals itself through service,” he says. “Systems, processes, and strategy are meaningful only when they serve people first.”

Clarity in Action

Dr. Reji takes operational complexities and distills them down into actions. He asserts that leadership is really about pointing the way forward and enabling execution, and not about bogging teams down in data or process. His approaches help to assure that improvements are translated into results for patients and staff.

Legacy in Healthcare

Dr. Reji’s vision transcends short-term results. Through operational excellence, digital transformation, and strategic expansion, he builds systems that deliver quality healthcare benefits for years to come. The experience of patients, staff, and communities is enhanced by the efficiency and human care his integrated approach and systems afford.

“Every facility, every team, every interaction reflects a choice to prioritize people,” he says. “Impact in healthcare comes from combining discipline with heart.”

Dr. Reji illustrates, through his experiences, that effective leadership in healthcare is about creating environments that allow staff to function at their best while delivering patient care that they can trust. His experience demonstrates that operational excellence and humanized care are two sides of the same coin. His leadership continues to change the face of healthcare in India, with hundreds of facilities and engagements with thousands of.