Author: Prashanth Lakhihal
Publication: India Tribune
Date: May 17, 2003
Prem Sagar Reddy, a prominent cardiologist
and a successful health care entrepreneur based in California, last week
donated a million dollars to a local community college to bolster its health
programs.
Underlying the presentation was
to prove a point that the American dream is still alive for immigrants.
"I want to impress upon fellow immigrant citizens and especially minorities
that the 'American Dream' is still alive and achievable," said Reddy, 54,
in a phone interview with India Tribune from Victorville, CA.
"This great nation of ours gives
everyone the opportunity to accomplish his or her fullest potential and
I am a clear testimony to this belief of mine," he added.
The founder of Desert Valley Hospital,
Medical Group and Charitable Foundation had a humble beginning. For the
first 15 years of his life in his tiny home village, Nidiguntapalam in
Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh, he didn't know what is electricity.
However, he belonged to the rural
privileged. His Reddy family had provided the village heads for the past
four generations. After he finished his high school, studying under a kerosene
lamp, he was sent to study college in Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
Reddy studied at the Christian Medical
School, fell in love with his fellow intern Venkamma Reddy and later married
her. "We had kind of a love marriage.at least I didn't take dowry," he
jocularly added.
In 1976, Prem Reddy immigrated to
the United States to undergo residency training in internal medicine and
cardiovascular disease at the State University of New York in Brooklyn.
Soon after the internship, they moved to the High Desert area in California
in 1981 and started their medical practice. Venkamma practices general
medicine in Victorville, CA.
Professional success followed Reddy
like bee scents honey. He became a fellow of American College of Cardiology
and American College of Chest Physicians. In his more than 20 years' practice,
he performed over 5,000 cardiac procedures like coronary angiography and
angioplasty.
But his solo practice alone didn't
help him to become a multi-millionaire. Since early 1990s, he began to
dabble in starting health care related businesses. He founded Desert Valley
Medical Group, which later became PrimeCare International, Inc. with operations
across the United States. At its peak, it served over 250,000 managed care
patients and had annual revenues in excess of $500 million.
During 1998-2000, he founded and
served as chairman and CEO of a pharmacy managed care company, PrimeRX.Com,
Inc (PrimeMed Pharmacy Services, Inc.), headquartered in Las Vegas, NV.
In recognition of his business skills,
accounting giant Ernst and Young gave him the 'Entrepreneur of the Year'
award. Similar prestigious awards followed by Inc. Magazine and Merrill
Lynch Financial Company.
How did he switch roles between
a professional doctor and a capitalist businessman? "I always wanted to
be a doctor.I love the gratification the patients give me as a doctor.
My drive to excel aided me in becoming an entrepreneur," he said adding
his leadership skills nurtured by his family too came handy as a business
baron.
Reddy got involved in lawsuits while
selling his company, PrimeCare International. That did not deter him during
that time from building a private hospital, Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville,
CA, from ground up. "I don't think anybody, I wish somebody would, has
built a private hospital in the past 20 years," he mused.
The DVH is an 85-bed state-of-the-art
acute care hospital employing close to 100 doctors. It has received unprecedented
accreditation with commendation in its first year of operation for the
high quality of services, Reddy added.
In 1989, Reddy established the Desert
Valley Charitable Foundation, a 501c(3) not-for-profit organization, with
an initial gift of $1 million. Since then, he has contributed over $5 million
to the foundation.
"So far, I have gifted between $7-8
million dollars to causes related to healthcare industry," he said.
The Victor Valley College Foundation
recently honored Reddy's donation of $1 million by naming its allied health
program as "Dr. Prem Reddy School of Allied Health and Nursing." The College
had previously felicitated him when they named their student health clinic
the "Dr. Prem Reddy Student and Staff Health Center."
Diane Nourse, vice president of
resource development and chairwoman of the Legacy Campaign for the College
Foundation, said: "This $1 million is the largest private donation in the
history of the College.this is truly an awesome gift."
That money would go specifically
to support the nursing and allied health programs at the college. It will
help the nursing department acquire more space and faculty to turn out
more nurses to serve the community. There are 900 students waiting to enter
VVC's registered nurses program, which graduates about 60 nurses a year.
His active benefaction has benefited
several students of nursing and physical therapy with annual scholarship
grants. In addition to assisting these students to complete their health
care education, Reddy has funded free health care camps and free vaccinations.
The prestigious Western University
of Health Science in Pomona, CA, named its largest lecture hall the "Dr.
Prem Reddy Lecture Hall" in honor of his many contributions to education
in the health care field.
Although Reddy has bestowed generously
to several charities in India, he says he has been "too engaged" in the
US to start an organization in his home district, Nellore. "I want to start
a college or an university in my district.I hope to do it someday," he
said.
An active Republican, Reddy has
contributed handsome amounts over the years to the Grand Old Party. The
Republican Central Committee gave him the 'Republican of the Year Award'
for San Bernandino County, the largest county of the US.
"Coming from a remote village in
India where we didn't have electricity until I went to college, to receive
this unique honor(s) speaks loud and clear about the 'American Dream,'"
he added.
Reddy lives in Victorville, CA,
along with his wife and three children - daughters Kavitha and Sunitha
and son Ashok.
