South African private hospital group Netcare is preparing to roll out medical-grade wearable devices across its general wards to monitor patients’ vital signs, as part of its digital transformation strategy.
The JSE-listed medical group made the announcement yesterday when it published its financial results for the year ended 30 September.
Group revenue for 2025 increased by 4.5% to R26.3 billion (FY 2024: R25.2 billion) and normalised group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for FY 2025 improved by 8.4% to R4.9 billion (FY 2024: R4.5 billion).
The firm notes that higher activity levels, ongoing digital benefits and reduced expenditure from certain strategic projects coming to an end resulted in strong operating leverage and an improvement in the group EBITDA margin of 60 basis points to 18.6% from 18% in FY 2024.
Cash generated from operations increased to R5.46 billion (FY 2024: R4.3 billion) with a cash conversion ratio of 111.3% (FY 2024: 96.5%).
Netcare CEO Dr Richard Friedland says: “These pleasing results have been achieved, notwithstanding a challenging macro-economic and competitive landscape.
“Our performance was underpinned by resilient demand for private healthcare services and continued benefits arising from the group’s digitisation strategy, which is clearly reflected in improved operational efficiency, enhanced quality of care and sustained margin expansion.”
He adds: “We are also excited to announce the imminent rollout of wearable devices for all patients in general wards across the country, commencing with an extensive pilot at a flagship facility.”
According to Friedland, these devices offer continuous clinical-grade monitoring of all key vital signs 24 hours a day, including heart rate, respiratory rate, core temperature, oxygen saturation and blood pressure.
“There are numerous benefits to continuous patient monitoring, which will integrate with our Electronic Medical Record platform to substantially improve quality of care, safety and clinical outcomes.”
The devices were developed in partnership with Swiss partner Corsano Health. The real-time insights from the wearables will support predictive monitoring, help clinicians spot early signs of deterioration and intervene sooner.
The initiative forms part of Netcare’s broader digital transformation strategy, which aims to enhance patient safety, improve care quality and streamline hospital operations through connected technology and AI-driven analytics.
According to Netcare, beyond the enhancements in clinical outcomes and patient experience, the digital transformation continues to deliver a tangible digital “dividend”, driving operational efficiencies, deeper funder and clinician value proposition, and improved quality of care.
It points out that while still in its early stages, the strategy has already generated exceptional financial returns, delivering an internal rate of return exceeding 25% and cumulative gross cash savings and cost avoidance of R587 million since FY 2022, surpassing original expectations.
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