Thirty years have passed since the ARS Medical Centre was founded. It is a great pleasure and satisfaction for us to see that the company has grown together with the reinstated State of Latvia over these 30 years. We are proud that our anniversary coincides with the 100th anniversary of Latvia.
ARS was founded on 20 January 1988 as a cooperative which was the only permitted form of business for a private company at that time. The company was founded by five doctors – a cardiologist, otolaryngologist, gastroenterologist, neurologist and pulmonologist – with a view to developing a new dignified way for medical doctors to work with patients outside a state-funded institution.
The cooperative, ARS Consultative Outpatient Centre, started its activities on the premises of a military enlistment office situated at 36 Terbatas Street in Riga, with doctors of the military enlistment office working during the first half of the day and ARS medical professionals working during the other half of the day. It was not an easy start, with pharmacies not even recognising prescriptions issued by medical doctors of the cooperative. However, the professional fame of ARS spread rapidly, and medical professionals joined our team in increasing numbers.
In 1992, when a special outpatient clinic for the nomenklatura (people in key administrative positions of the bureaucracy) at 5 Skolas Street was closed, ARS moved into its former premises. Currently our team consists of nearly 600 employees providing medical services at a consistently high level of quality.
Our core values have been based on responsibility and commitment to the highest standards in the field of medicine at all times. Living without risks to take and challenges to overcome is not very interesting, which is why the ARS Medical Centre has always aimed to play a leading role in the field of medical diagnostics and is making heavy investments in purchasing state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment.
We have been pioneers in many medical fields in Latvia. We were the first to introduce lithotripsy, a non-invasive method for treatment of kidney stones, in Latvia in 1996. In 1997, we were the first to buy high-resolution ultrasound machines HDI 5000 and HDI 3000 (the patents of the machines manufactured by GDI were later purchased and further developed by Philips). In 1997, we were the first to introduce osteodensitometry (bone density measurement) in Latvia. In 2002, ARS became the first private company to start providing MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) diagnostic services (the MRI scanner was the third of its kind available in Latvia at that time) because we were aware that the diagnostic possibilities offered by these machines would be in great demand in the future. In 2007, ARS purchased the first 64-slice CT scanner in Latvia, which was the most advanced machine of its kind in the Baltic States at that time.
Last year, we opened a new company branch – the ARS Diagnostics Clinic – at the former Red Cross Hospital at 3 J. Asara Street in Riga offering a range of cutting-edge technologies and state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment operated by the best medical professionals in Latvia.
It is great satisfaction for us to able to do here, in Latvia, things at the same level as elsewhere in the world – and even much better. This is evidenced by our architects, opera singers, artists and medical doctors. This proves that one needs to work only in the area of one’s calling.
Let us celebrate the 100th anniversary of Latvia and the 30th anniversary of ARS with pride!
Maris Andersons,
Chairman of the Board
Medical Centre ARS
