Medical Center, Tavush – TRDP Entrepreneur Hamayak Adamyan
“When I manage to cure a child, I become the happiest person on earth”
Hamayak Adamyan is the owner of a Café, Internet club and a Medical Center in the town of Berd, Tavush region. Firstly, Hamayak learned about Turpanjian Rural Development Program (TRDP) from his son 6-7 years ago and since then Hamayak has actively been cooperating with TRDP. Dr. Adamyan first applied for the program’s assistance to expand his café into an internet club and he succeeded. Currently, his café and internet club operate in their full potential and attract many customers.
Hamayak confessed that because he had prior business experience, at first, TRDP trainings seemed boring to him. However, after completing them, he realized that the knowledge TRDP trainings gives is a business manual each entrepreneur should possess. Both the method of delivery and the content of the training are very useful for present, as well as future, entrepreneurs, Hamayak noted.
“I thought that when you open a business, people will know about it. But that is not the case. I have learned that marketing strategies are very important for the development of your business. You should research the market and revise certain strategies to promote your production,” states Hamayak. Now Adamyan develops his business plan for the next 5 years.
As a physician by profession, Hamayak felt that in addition to his other businesses, he should establish his own medical center in Berd, the demand for which was very high in that region.
In 2012, Hamayak applied to the TRDP loan program for a second time and achieved his goal: he opened a local medical center. Previously, the residents of the town of Berd and surrounding communities had to travel to the medical centers and hospitals in Yerevan. With TRDP’s assistance, Dr. Adamyan renovated the building his family owned, purchased laboratory and analysis equipment, and opened a local medical center providing primary care and basic testing. This center, licensed by the Ministry of Health, is the only one in the region offering many types of tests and services, including cardiology consultation and analysis, gastroscopy, echography, sonography, and clinic-biochemical analysis.
“Based on the absence of the above mentioned services in the region and the existing demand, we opened our medical center that provides general medical services, as well as analysis of cardiology, echography, gastroscopy and sonography,” Hamayak elaborates.
Hamayak stated that the need to have a diagnostic center with a laboratory center was very high in the region. With the support of the TRDP, he managed to open the medical business with its diagnostic and laboratory centers. The most difficult issues were the finances and lack of professionals. TRDP helped solve both issues. Hamayak received a loan and sent the specialists to special trainings in Yerevan.
“It was very difficult and risky because previously such kinds of services were absence of in the region. However, together with TRDP, we decided to [take the] risk, [and] obtained the necessary equipment and started operations,” Hamayak said.
Now, as the years show, the services Hamayak’s medical center provides are in high demand in the region. Hamayak notes that the medical center is successful because as a physician, he knows all the aspects of his business, and because he has a productive professional staff, who work well as a team and who provide high quality service.
“Patients should be treated in a warm and friendly atmosphere,” Hamayak assured.
Hamayak constantly searches for innovations and new ways to help his patients. He signed a contract with one of the diagnostic centers in Yerevan. When a patient comes to his medical center and asks for diagnostic services not performed in Hamayak’s medical center, Hamayak takes the analysis from the patient, puts it in a specially designed medical thermos, and sends it to Yerevan. Hamayak gets the diagnosis on the same day by the Internet and passes it on to the patient.
This innovation greatly improves the lives of the community members who previously had to travel to Yerevan for the diagnostics. The patient saves both money and time.
“Medicine always requires innovation, I’m already considering buying new modern equipment,” states Hamayak.
Hamayak, from time to time, invites specialists in cardiology, gastroscopy and endocrinology, from various hospitals in Yerevan, to his medical center. Patients then come to the medical center to be treated by those specialists. This innovation helps patients save time and money, as they previously had to travel to Yerevan or Dilijan for such services.
Hamayak employs eight people from the community: five nurses, two doctors, and one laboratory specialist. The staff of Hamayak’s medical center serves all communities in the region of Berd. In 2014, the medical center provided its cardiology services to 1,400 patients and sonography services to 1,800 adult patients; 2,100 children received medical treatment in Hamayak’s center as well. Furthermore, Armenians from Russia and Ukraine come to Berd in the summer and use the center’s services because Hamayk’s medical center’s prices for its services are much lower than the prices for the same services in Russia and Ukraine.
Currently, Hamayak does business with another successful TRDP beneficiary, Anush Tsaturyan, who owns a sewing workshop in the town of Noyemberyan. Hamayak orders linen and uniforms with the medical center’s logo for his employees and himself.
Hamayak’s medical center’s impact on his community and the region of Berd is huge. In addition to all the benefits that Hamayak’s medical center provides for residents of the region, Hamayak is also actively engaged in charity activities. He provides medical services to all the children from the bordering villages of the Berd region for free or with a 50% discount. All poor families get treatment for free.
Just recently, Hamayak, with his team, conducted free helminth diagnostic tests in the kindergartens of the bordering Aygepar and Chinari villages. Now, he plans to treat and cure the children who test positive, again, for free.
Hamayak credits TRDP for all his achievements. “The opportunities TRDP offers, one cannot find anywhere else.” For Hamayak, the most important aspect of TRDP’s assistance is that after you receive a loan, TRDP stays with you and monitors the development of the business, helps you with consultations, and oversees the allocation of financial resources to ensure they are used in the most cost-efficient manner.
Hamayak explained that what makes him happy is when he manages to heal sick children and sees them playing and cheering once again. “I love children very much, when I manage to make them think positively, believe in their strength and cure them, I become the happiest man on earth.”
What Hamayak loves most about his job is when he sees children smiling. “Even when I tell them that unfortunately they do have the problem, they still smile because they trust me, they believe that I will cure them.”
Hamayak plans to expand the space of his business premises to be able to increase the number of services he provides. Currently he provides three services. He is sure that in 10 years he will be able to provide 8-10 medical services.
