Hemas Hospitals has entered Sri Lanka’s 100 Most Valuable Brands ranking for the first time this year, a milestone General Manager Marketing Chinthaka Dissanayake credits to trust built over years. The Group operates two hospitals, in Wattala and Thalawathugoda, strategically located to expand access to high-quality healthcare in communities that were previously underserved. Hemas Hospitals was the first internationally accredited hospital in Sri Lanka, certified by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards, and the first local hospital to receive a COVID-19 safety certificate from the Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Also, the first hospital to achieve certification on Integrated Management Systems, Sri Lanka (ISO 45001- 2018, ISO 9001 – 2015, and ISO 14001 – 2015). At the National Convention for Product and Quality Awards 2026, it won 30 awards, the highest by any hospital.
In healthcare, trust and brand equity are earned over time through consistent clinical quality, patient outcomes and service. Dissanayake frames the recognition as a result rather than a goal: none of the milestones behind it, he says, “were pursued as marketing exercises,” and the recognition “followed as a consequence rather than as the goal itself.”
That thinking runs through how Hemas Hospitals is building its services. Dissanayake describes a shift from a traditional, transaction-based model of care to one spanning prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery as a single continuous journey, rather than a hospital being somewhere patients visit only when something goes wrong. The Group is building a liver centre at its Wattala hospital that will become Sri Lanka’s first private, multi-disciplinary paediatric liver centre once fully operational, alongside a new interventional cardiac unit. Its self-care app now lets patients track a doctor’s queue position in real time before they arrive, one of several features Dissanayake says are meant to remove friction from the patient experience rather than add convenience for its own sake.
Dissanayake wants Hemas Hospitals to become “comparable to the very best international hospitals,” investing in predictive analytics aimed at identifying health risks earlier, alongside robotics and emerging clinical technologies designed to improve treatment outcomes and recovery. “The question we keep asking ourselves is not just how we treat illness better, but how we help people stay well for longer,” he says, describing it as the industry’s biggest shift: from a treatment-first model to a health-first one.
Hemas Hospitals has entered the 100 Most Valuable Brands ranking for the first time this year. What does this recognition mean for the organisation, and what do you believe has driven the brand to this milestone?
We are very happy about this result, and I see it first and foremost as recognition of the trust we have built within the community over the years. Healthcare is a different industry to work in. Unlike an FMCG brand, where visibility alone can carry you, in healthcare, visibility is not enough on its own to earn trust and brand equity. That has to be built over years through a relentless focus on patient quality, clinical outcomes, listening to patients, and consistently maintaining service levels. I would say that this trust is a very important factor in bringing us to this milestone. We maintain the highest Google review rating in Sri Lanka’s private healthcare sector, reflecting consistently positive patient experiences.
Equally, this recognition validates our long-term commitment to global healthcare standards. We pioneered international accreditation in Sri Lanka because we believed it was important to set a benchmark for patient outcomes, clinical standards and safety. That discipline has strengthened our customer satisfaction and given us a genuine edge. Being named among Sri Lanka’s 100 Most Valuable Brands is therefore not simply an external acknowledgement; it reflects years of consistent behaviour, from clinical governance and safety protocols to how we train and support our people. It gives the whole organisation confidence to keep pushing further.
Healthcare is built on trust. Looking back at the journey of Hemas Hospitals, what have been the defining moments that helped establish the brand’s reputation among patients and communities?
For Hemas Hospitals, our philosophy has always been to provide high-quality healthcare at affordable pricing to underserved markets. If you look at our two hospitals, they are strategically located in Wattala and Thalawathugoda, chosen specifically to serve communities we felt were underserved. We believe that every citizen has the right to access high-quality healthcare, no matter which geography or demographic they come from, and we decided to build our hospitals around that belief. That, in turn, has genuinely driven our growth. It is part of our philosophy: that clinical excellence and high-quality affordable care should be available to all our citizens, not just a select few.
Alongside that, setting the benchmark for quality and safety has been a defining factor for us and for the industry. As you mentioned, we were the first internationally accredited hospital in Sri Lanka. We received our accreditation from the Australian Council of Health Standards, which follows a very comprehensive process, assessing clinical outcomes and patient safety at every stage, from admission right through to discharge. We have been continuously re-accredited since then, and that standard has genuinely benefitted patients because it is a benchmark that we ourselves set for the industry to follow.
There have been other quality milestones too. We were the first hospital to receive the COVID-19 safety certificate from the Sri Lanka Standards Institution. And more recently, at the National Convention on Quality and Productivity, we won 30 awards, the highest by any hospital, bringing our tally to over 125 gold awards. These achievements encapsulate our DNA: a relentless commitment to quality, patient safety and excellent service. Importantly, they were not pursued as marketing exercises, but arose from an internal conviction about what good healthcare should look like. The recognition followed as a consequence rather than as the goal itself.
The healthcare sector has undergone significant transformation over the past decade. How has Hemas Hospitals evolved alongside these changes while remaining true to its core purpose?
The world is changing very fast, and what Hemas Hospitals has done is move from a traditional model of care into a more comprehensive, care-based model. We now look at our entire patient journey from a different perspective, one that spans prevention, diagnostics and consultation, right through to admission, discharge and follow-up care. We treat this as a single continuous journey rather than a series of separate transactions, and we have deliberately structured our services to cater to that whole journey.
This shift reflects how we now think about our role. We do not want the hospital to be perceived simply as a physical location people visit when something goes wrong; we want Hemas Hospitals to be a health partner throughout the patient’s journey. Our core purpose of providing high-quality, accessible, affordable healthcare has not changed. What has evolved is where we believe that purpose begins and ends: it starts earlier, with helping people understand their health and risk factors, and extends beyond discharge into recovery and long-term wellbeing.
Innovation is increasingly shaping the future of healthcare. What are some of the key innovations in technology, patient care, service delivery, or operations that have helped differentiate Hemas Hospitals?
In healthcare, we see innovation differently from how other industries might. For us, it must improve patient outcomes, experience, and safety, while increasing speed and accountability. Efficiency matters, but it is not the sole objective. We assess every innovation by whether it delivers meaningful value to the patient, and we have undertaken several initiatives with that principle in mind.
We have a state-of-the-art liver centre at Hemas Hospital, Wattala. Once it is fully operational, it will be the first private, multi-disciplinary paediatric liver centre in Sri Lanka, and it will allow us to cater to a much wider demographic of patients who currently do not have easy access to this kind of specialised care. That is one example of the clinical outcomes we expect innovation to deliver. We also have a state-of-the-art interventional cardiac unit at the same hospital.
On the digital side, we have built a self-care app that supports the wider patient-service ecosystem, not just the booking process. It includes features such as live tracking of the doctor’s queue number, allowing patients to see where they stand before they arrive. These additions are designed to make the experience smoother from end to end and remove moments of friction, anxiety, and uncertainty from what is already a stressful experience for many people.
“For Hemas Hospitals, our philosophy has always been to provide high-quality healthcare at affordable pricing to underserved markets. We believe that every citizen has the right to access high-quality healthcare, no matter which geography or demographic they come from, and we decided to build our hospitals around that belief.”
Patient expectations today are vastly different from what they were a decade ago. How has Hemas Hospitals adapted its services and patient experience to meet these changing expectations?
Patient expectations are rising. Today’s patients want more personalised service, greater attention from their consultants and a smoother overall experience. These are reasonable expectations and meeting them requires customer experience to be treated as a leadership priority. Hemas Hospitals was one of the first hospitals to elevate customer experience into a leadership position because we believe it is a core component of what makes a hospital great.
Customer experience, to us, is the entire patient journey, not just the moment a patient walks into the hospital, but even before they arrive. That means mapping out that journey, understanding every touchpoint along the way, and working out what we need to do to address those pain points meaningfully. Even something as small as the valet parking service we offer at Hemas Hospital, Thalawathugoda, adds real value to the patient experience.
One of the most important things we do is collect patient feedback through our call centre, surveys and digital channels. What matters most is how we act on it. We use that feedback to drive continual improvement and implement the systems and processes needed to meet patient expectations. Patient service and quality are a race that never ends: formal standards provide the foundation, but becoming exceptional requires us to keep improving beyond them. It also means training our people not only in clinical skills, but in empathy, communication and responsiveness, because patients increasingly view these as essential parts of quality care.
Healthcare is becoming more digital, data-driven, and personalised. Which emerging trends do you believe will have the greatest impact on healthcare delivery, and how is Hemas Hospitals preparing for that future?
Healthcare is at a pivotal point. Patients are placing much greater importance on preventative care and are increasingly interested in understanding their health before illness develops. This is a major area Hemas Hospitals wants to expand, helping people make informed decisions earlier rather than encountering the healthcare system only during a crisis.
We are also seeing a rise in non-communicable diseases, intensified by an ageing population and the resulting pressure on the healthcare system. This makes prevention even more important. The aim is to help people understand and manage their risks proactively, reducing avoidable admissions and improving long-term health outcomes.
We have made considerable investment in this space because we believe it will define the future of healthcare. We want to use data and AI proactively, while introducing robotics into clinical practice to improve surgical recovery and quality of life. Ultimately, the question we keep asking is not only how we treat illness better, but how we help people stay well for longer. That shift from a treatment-first model to a health-first model is the industry’s most significant transformation.
If you were to define the next chapter of the Hemas Hospitals story, what would success look like over the next five to ten years, and what role will innovation play in getting there?
We want Hemas Hospitals to become comparable to the very best international hospitals. Achieving that requires us to maintain rigorous global standards while embracing advances such as AI, predictive analytics, and other emerging clinical technologies. The ability to identify health risks before a person becomes unwell represents a major opportunity, and we want Hemas Hospitals to be part of that global progress so patients in Sri Lanka can access care comparable to any leading international institution.
Hemas Hospitals is also part of the wider legacy of the Hemas brand, and our values extend from that heritage. We want to remain accessible without compromising quality, with patient safety at the centre of every decision. Our future success will be defined by strong clinical outcomes, a closer relationship with patients and the ability to use better tools to deliver on the same promise of trust for generations to come. Innovation is not separate from our purpose; it is the means by which we continue to fulfil it.