Dr Keyoor Gautam, consultant pathologist and founder of Samyak Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd., is driven by his responsibility towards his patients. Samyak Diagnostics was established in 2014 with a motive to make lab visits as convenient as possible. The seed was perhaps planted in 2012 when Gautam served as the head of the Department of Pathology at Grande International Hospital and helped build their laboratory system. Gautam, who did his post graduation in India, says diagnostic centers are well managed there unlike in Nepal. “Not just India, but elsewhere too, labs are efficiently run,” he adds. He felt Nepal lacked proper labs that were efficient and affordable. And his position in Grande was just what he needed to turn his vision of an ideal lab into reality. “But it wasn’t an easy task,” he says, “One of the basics of a good lab is easy flow for staff as well as patients, and I knew nothing about construction to do that.” There were times where he felt he wasn’t ready for the challenge. But what helped him, he says, was a word of advice from a senior. “He asked me to picture everything in my head, starting with how people would enter and move about,” he says, and so he did.

Gautam was able to establish one of the most efficient labs in Kathmandu at Grande, but he says that came at a cost. He was barely able to see his family. “I knew I was doing good, but at the same time, it felt like I was not giving enough time to my wife and son,” he adds. Working hard for two years at the same institution, Gautam was skeptical if he could ever get a break. And that was when the concept of Samyak Diagnostics came to him.

“I thought maybe with my own lab it would be easier to maintain a work-life balance,” he says, “But it took me another two years to finally get there.” Being a newly established path lab, he needed to be there from opening to closing. During the first couple of years, Gautam was the one to open and lock the lab doors. “I felt I needed to be available for my patients as well as the staff,” he says. Now, Samyak Diagnostics is among the best diagnostics labs in the valley, being the first to have ISO 15189 accreditation, an international standard requirement for quality management systems in medical laboratories. Their popularity grew because of word of mouth. People who visit the lab once recommend it to their family and friends. One of the reasons for that is the excellent service they provide. The staff are friendly and put you at ease from the moment you enter. They also ensure no one has to wait for more than five minutes. You also get informed when your lab results are ready, via SMS and email, saving you the hassle of having to check online or call to ask. Surprisingly, the place is affordable, and some tests are even cheaper than other hospitals and clinics, with special discounts for doctors, those in uniform, and some concessions for everybody else. Also, unlike at other labs, doctors are available for consultation in case patients want to discuss or understand their lab results. When asked how he manages to ensure such a friendly environment at the lab, Gautam says it’s because the employees are happy and content. His employees are his extended family and he says he will do whatever it takes to ensure the workplace is safe for them. “That is one of the reasons why I never started doing Covid-19 tests during the pandemic,” he says. Many people told him to provide covid testing, they told him it was a great opportunity to make a lot of money. But money, though an important aspect of business, has never been the basis of his decisions. Gautam mentions he didn’t want his patients to be scared to visit the lab during the pandemic and neglect their medical routine checkups. Being a stickler for discipline and hard work, Gautam reaches office at 7:00 in the morning and he is there till 4:00 pm. He even pops by for a little while on Saturday, which is his day off. He does this because unless he checks in on his team he feels something is amiss. “The hard work I put in ensures a good night’s sleep. I can sleep well when I know everything is running smoothly,” he says. The ISO 15189 accreditation helps put his mind at ease. There is a system that holds him and his team accountable, leaving absolutely no room for error. “One slip-up and the entire place will be shut down,” he says, adding sometimes things do go wrong, despite their best interests. But there is a system there too to ensure it is rectified. “To err is human but you have to own up to your mistake and correct it. That is what’s important,” he says. Samyak has sample collection centers at Baneshwor and Budhanilkantha. There is also the provision for home collection. It was started after much research on how long a test sample can be stored outside the lab. “While introducing new things, we don’t want to compromise on the service we provide,” he adds. Earlier there were many lab tests that couldn’t be done in Nepal. Samyak changed that. Many labs have followed in its footsteps and, as long as the competition is healthy, Gautam is happy that pathology as a field is evolving and becoming better. Having assisted in establishing quality path labs at Nepal Police Hospital in Panipokhari and the National Public Health Laboratory, Gautam believes good, reliable healthcare is everybody’s right, and he is working relentlessly towards making that happen. Gautam has also consulted for various government projects to establish labs in different parts of the country. It was under his guidance and expertise that the government managed to start six labs in Rukkum where healthcare facilities were limited to a bare minimum. As important as work is for him, Gautam realizes the need to spend time with his family, especially his son. It is what recharges him and makes him happy. He also enjoys sports. These days, he is into tennis, he says. He also hopes to retire when he is 50. “I want to learn Sanskrit after that. You have to invest in yourself too,” he says.