Managing hospital business in global recession.

Appolo Hospitals has started Appolo clinics in various parts of Delhi. People reach them for need of investigations and specialists consultations. If needed patient is reffered to Appolo hospital.

Rural or small towns or cities even should have 3 tier system of medical health care system. Level 1 should be with basic infrastructure and at a reasonable cost to attract more patients.. Level 2 Should have more advanced facilities but within reach of a patient economically as well as distance wise. Level 3 should have all super specialized facilites.

A General practitioner is providing some facilities to a patient at a very reasonable price. If better facilities are provided at the same cost then Level 1 can attract more number of patients. It will need proper marketing and patient awareness.

 What we can do just like Aviation companies trailor mate the services accoring to the needs of the people. We can set up Primary and Secondary health units in rural regions and have referals units in near by towns. This will require minimum to moderate investment in equipment where as there will be huge patient base by which the fixed cost will get distributed and can get satisfactory returns. We dont need to have hotel like embience in these hospitals but importantly these shoud be accessible and the unit environment should be patient friendly with passinate and hygenic care.

Prem Prakash, you have really bought out a good issue with this debate... I agree with the fact that healthcare will have to get into the shoes of a Deccan or Indigo Airlines, and provide the same level of experience to all.

Definitely, healthcare will become accessible to all and sundry. To be able to get treated in Super-specialty Corporate hospitals, general population will not have to think that it would burn a hole in the pocket. At the end, you would be sitting in a hospital attracting more patients.

I would also agree with Subhasis, the good healthcare we are all imagining cannot be complete on account of two things, Primarily the skilled manpower (be it Doctors, Nurses, Technicians, Administrative support staff, etc.) and then comes Technology. To set up a Superspecialty hospital to cater to high end clinical needs of patients it is very important for all to understand that better high-end technology costs more money and so does the clinical talent.

So, when we think of hospitals, we should think of setting up low cost primary and secondary care hospitals in the rural areas that are able to provide the basic facilities and a mix of secondary care and high end tertiary care hospitals that are ablle to cater to the healthcare needs of both Rural adn Urban patient.

At the end, I feel that there has to be a mix of both the forms of healthcare organizations for the community to be served effectively and efficiently.

All comments are welcome...

Regards

Arvind Bhagania

Wockhardt Hospitals.

Yes, infact huge profit margins would be an outcome of handling untapped volumes.

Quality has always been there in India, only thing is doctors should be motivated to practice in Rural areas

http://renyvarghese.wordpress.com/

Dear Reny i would certainly agree with you. Rural india is the most unexplored segment of our society and moreover people in rural areas have been devoid of proper medication and health facilities from years.If we focus on this segment then there are two benefits:

1.We will be able to make huge profits given the huge population of rural india.

2. Most importantly we will give them proper medical facilities which will go a long way in improving the health of the people of the country.

So definitely first they should focus on the local market to combat the recession period and to help in the development of the country.

What do you say?

In my opinion indian hospitals should target rural areas for strengthning their local operations as well as their reach to common people which will definetly boost their market segment . This may only be the reason that being a country of over a billion manpower quality healthcare is still unreachable to common.

Goverment set is now drying with the patient base due to its failure to provide neccesary health facilities in rural areas & therefore rural market is a high growth area for any private player especially for cost effective services like primary care , secondary care & diagnostice facilities.