Quro Medical bets on hospital-at-home care to reshape South Africa’s healthcare system

South Africa’s healthcare system faces a difficult balancing act: improving access to quality care while containing rising costs and making more efficient use of limited clinical resources. For Quro Medical, the answer lies partly in changing where patients receive treatment.

Founded in 2018 by Zikho Pali and Dr Vuyane Mhlomi, the company delivers hospital-level care in patients’ homes, using technology to support clinical monitoring and personalised treatment. Its model challenges the assumption that a hospital bed must always be the centre of care for patients who require close medical supervision.

Pali, Quro Medical’s co-founder and chief operating officer, believes the next phase of the business will depend on making hospital-at-home care a recognised component of mainstream healthcare rather than an alternative reserved for selected patients.

The company’s immediate priority is to strengthen its position in the healthcare ecosystem and demonstrate how home-based treatment can contribute to better outcomes, more efficient hospital operations and improved patient access.

Moving beyond the hospital ward

Quro Medical was established against the backdrop of persistent inequality in access to healthcare and the financial pressures associated with hospital admissions. Its founders saw an opportunity to address both challenges by using technology to deliver appropriate clinical care outside conventional hospital settings.

The premise is straightforward: not every patient who needs hospital-level treatment necessarily needs to remain in a hospital building for the duration of their recovery.

By enabling suitable patients to receive care at home, the model can help facilitate earlier discharge, shorten hospital stays and reduce the risk of avoidable readmissions. It also has the potential to free hospital capacity for patients whose conditions require the resources of a conventional clinical facility.

Realising these benefits, however, requires more than moving treatment into a different setting. Home-based care must meet rigorous clinical standards, maintain effective monitoring and give patients and their families confidence that they remain under appropriate medical supervision.

For Pali, establishing that confidence is central to the sector’s development. She sees 2026 as an important year for building wider acceptance of technology-enabled hospital-at-home care among healthcare providers, funders and patients.

The longer-term objective is to integrate the model into established care pathways, allowing decisions about treatment to be guided by clinical need rather than the traditional boundaries between hospitals and homes.

Netcare partnership signals a shift towards integrated care

Quro Medical’s strategic partnership with Netcare, one of South Africa’s major private healthcare groups, provides an important platform for advancing that ambition.

The relationship brings together an established hospital network and a business focused on technology-enabled care beyond the hospital environment. The opportunity lies in combining clinical infrastructure, digital capabilities and alternative delivery models to improve how patients move through the healthcare system.

For Pali, the partnership reflects a broader industry reality: the scale of healthcare challenges makes collaboration between established providers and innovative businesses increasingly important.

Hospitals will continue to play an essential role in treating patients with acute and complex conditions. But their role within the wider healthcare system may evolve as technology and alternative care models create more options for managing patients before admission, during recovery and after discharge.

A more integrated approach could help reduce fragmentation between different stages of treatment. It could also support better coordination between hospital teams and clinicians providing care in the home.

The opportunity is not to replace hospitals, but to make the overall system work more effectively by directing patients to the most appropriate setting for their needs.

Technology puts patient outcomes at the centre

Data and digital infrastructure are fundamental to Quro Medical’s approach. The company’s model uses continuous monitoring to provide clinicians with a more consistent picture of patients’ conditions than intermittent observations alone may offer.

This can support more responsive clinical decision-making and help care teams identify changes that require attention. It also creates opportunities to tailor treatment to individual patients rather than relying exclusively on standardised care pathways.

The value of such technology, however, depends on how effectively it translates information into clinical action. Monitoring systems must be supported by appropriate clinical oversight, clear escalation procedures and reliable communication between patients and care teams.

This distinction is increasingly important as healthcare providers invest in digital systems. Technology is not an outcome in itself; its value lies in whether it improves the quality, safety and efficiency of care.

Pali argues that the sector is moving towards greater accountability for results. Historically, hospital performance has often been associated with physical infrastructure and capacity, including the availability and occupancy of beds. Healthcare funders and other stakeholders are increasingly interested in what those resources achieve for patients.

In this environment, models that support appropriate early discharge, reduce unnecessary hospital stays and help prevent readmissions may become more important to healthcare planning.

For Quro Medical, the case for hospital-at-home care therefore rests on its ability to complement existing facilities while contributing to measurable improvements in patient management.

Accessibility extends beyond the cost of treatment

Affordability remains a significant consideration in South African healthcare, but Pali argues that access also depends on how patients experience the healthcare system.

Receiving treatment at home can place patients in a more familiar environment and give families a greater opportunity to participate in the care process. It can also create opportunities for clinicians to explain conditions and treatment plans in ways that patients find easier to understand.

This human dimension is important to Quro Medical’s operating model. Clinical quality is not determined solely by technology, medical expertise or treatment protocols. Communication, trust and the way patients are treated also influence the overall experience of care.

The company’s recognition as Best Innovator at the BHF Titanium Awards has brought attention to its approach. For Pali, the achievement also reflects the contribution of employees whose work often extends beyond formal responsibilities to help patients and their families navigate treatment.

The challenge for the business is to preserve that patient-centred approach as it expands, ensuring that operational growth does not come at the expense of care quality.

Growth must be supported by a sustainable workforce

Scaling a healthcare business requires more than attracting investment or developing new technology. It also depends on retaining skilled employees, maintaining consistent standards and creating an environment in which teams can perform effectively.

Pali places particular emphasis on balancing high expectations with respect for employees. In her view, a business can demand strong performance without compromising the dignity of the people responsible for delivering it.

That principle has implications for the wider healthcare sector, which needs to develop and retain the workforce required to meet growing demand.

Pali believes sustainable employment growth follows from building solutions that genuinely address the needs of patients, clinicians and healthcare funders. When a service demonstrates value and attracts sustained demand, businesses are better positioned to expand their teams and continue investing in their capabilities.

For Quro Medical, this means growing the business without weakening the clinical and organisational principles on which it was established.

Looking towards 2030

Quro Medical’s longer-term ambition is to make high-quality healthcare more accessible and affordable through continued investment in its technology platform, monitoring capabilities and clinical pathways.

The company intends to assess new developments against those objectives, rather than adopting technology simply because it is available. Wearable devices, software improvements and new treatment pathways must contribute to better care while remaining practical and accessible to the patients they are intended to serve.

The challenge will be to scale a model that depends on both technological reliability and human judgement. Home-based care must be clinically appropriate, operationally sustainable and trusted by the wider healthcare system if it is to become a more established part of patient management.

Regulatory requirements, funding arrangements and the willingness of healthcare providers to incorporate alternative delivery models will also influence how quickly the sector develops.

Pali’s outlook is nevertheless grounded in the belief that the traditional separation between hospitals and community-based care will become less pronounced as healthcare delivery evolves.

Leadership requires judgement and representation

Pali’s experience as a woman building a business in a complex healthcare environment has also shaped her views on leadership.

She encourages young women pursuing leadership careers to recognise that they have a legitimate place in decision-making environments, while deliberately developing the skills and judgement required to contribute meaningfully.

For her, sound judgement is particularly important when navigating unfamiliar environments and making decisions under pressure. She also stresses the value of mentorship and relationships with women who have already established themselves in positions of influence.

Representation, she argues, can help make career possibilities more tangible for those who may not have seen themselves reflected in senior leadership.

These principles mirror the broader challenge facing Quro Medical as it grows: building an organisation that can meet demanding clinical and commercial objectives without losing sight of the people behind the work.

The company’s success will ultimately depend on whether hospital-at-home care can deliver demonstrable value at scale. If it can, the model could help healthcare providers use existing capacity more efficiently while giving suitable patients another way to access quality treatment.

For Pali, the central consideration remains the quality of care. Expansion matters, but not at the expense of the standards that give the business its purpose.