Asian healthcare giant opens facility in Kenya

John Northen, Group CEO-Columbia Asia

Columbia Asia, one of the largest and fastest-growing healthcare companies in Asia, is expanding its operations to Africa to serve the rising demand from the continent’s middle class for affordable, modern and efficient healthcare facilities.

The company’s first facility in Africa is a 5,300-square-foot multi-specialty clinic and diagnostic center that opened this week in Nairobi, Kenya, a capital city with more than three million people and in the midst of a surge in foreign direct investment. The clinic is operating under a new brand, Columbia Africa.

Columbia Asia, part of Seattle-based Columbia Pacific Management, has 27 hospitals and one clinic in India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, built with an innovative business model focused on serving a rapidly growing middle class with modern and efficient multi-specialty facilities located close to where patients live and work.

The new clinic in Nairobi specializes in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, gynecology, general surgery, orthopedics, ophthalmology and dental care. The facility offers health checks, as well as telemedicine to allow patients to consult with specialist doctors at Columbia Asia hospitals.

The Nairobi clinic also has a patient services center to facilitate patients travelling for surgery at Columbia Asia hospitals in Asia, which had already been receiving a significant number of patients from East Africa. 

“Africa has become a growing market for us, as patients are increasingly seeking multi-specialty, affordable healthcare services delivered at international standards,” said John Northen, Group Chief Executive Officer of Columbia Asia. “Kenya is the economic, commercial and logistical hub for all of East Africa, with Nairobi as a major center of growth and foreign investment, so the city was a great fit for our first Columbia Africa facility.”

Columbia Asia opened its first hospital in Malaysia in 1996 and over two decades has developed one of the largest hospital companies in Asia, with a focus on high-quality, affordable, standardized care. 

Columbia Asia is the only healthcare provider in Asia to operate hospitals in so many countries under a single brand, and one of the few large, multinational providers in Asia to build the vast majority of its hospitals itself.

With the addition of the Columbia Africa clinic, the company has 10,000 employees serving more than 2.5 million patients a year, with 2,200 beds across 27 hospitals and two clinics.

For more information about the Nairobi clinic, go to www.columbiaafrica.com.