Professional Documents
Culture Documents
related to well being of human beings. Health care is the social sector and it
is provided at State level with the help of Central Government. Health care
Right from the time of Ramayana and Mahabharata, health care was there
but with time, Health care sector has changed substantially. With
I. Hospitals
II Medical insurance
Health care service is the combination of tangible and intangible aspect with
the intangible aspect dominating the intangible aspect. In fact it can be said
the doctor are completely intangible. The tangible things could include the
bed, the décor, etc. Efforts made by hospitals to tangiblize the service
offering would be discussed in details in the unique characteristics part of
the report.
Hospitals
Pathology Clinics
Blood Banks
Meditation Centres
Telemedicine
Naturopathy
Yoga Centres
Fitness Centres
Laughter Clubs
Health Spas
In the Constitution of India, health is a state subject. Central govt’s
intervention to assist the state govt is needed in the areas of control and
safe motherhood, child survival and immunization Program. The plan outlay
portion of outlay is for the control and eradication of diseases like malaria, ,
-care.
In our project our focus has been the hospital sector which is the major
Some Facts
the rate of 13 percent for the next six years which amounts to an
in 1999.
• Over the last five years, there has been an attitudinal change amongst
shortlived and out of the 22 listed hospital scrips, most are being trading
intensive operations and a long gestation period are all wise reasons to shy
away from investing in the healthcare industry. Government and trust
hospitals dominate the scene. Many of the trust hospitals suffer from poor
critical mass.
and weren’t part of a larger phenomenon. However, now, there are the
insurance companies, the hospital hardware and the software companies that
from the Financial Institutions. The government also reduced the import
Since the National Health Policy (the policy’s main objective was ‘Health For
All’ by the Year 2000) was approved in 1983, little has been done to update
or amend the policy even as the country changes and the new health
healthcare.
contributed to greater attention being paid to health. With the rise in the
system of nuclear families, it became necessary for regular health check-ups
Brand Development: Many family run business houses, have set-up charity
hospitals. By lending their name to the hospital, they develop a good image in
the markets which further improves the brand image of products from their
other businesses.
Wockhardt and Max India, have ventured into this sector as it is a direct
normal middle class family. The opening up of the insurance sector to private
USA about 75 % of the total population are covered under some insurance
reimburses customers after they have paid for treatment out of their own
pockets. This will give a great advantage to private players like Cigna which
boom. The insurers will use PPOs, that will grow into HMOs, to assume
HOSPITAL
DOCTOR PATIENT
Company: Here, the hospital is the company that dreams up an idea of
Customer: The patient who seeks to get cured is the customer for
the hospital as he is the one who avails the service and pays for it.
as he is the one who comes in direct contact with the patient. The
HOSPITALS
General
Homeo Primary
Voluntary Health
Agencies Centre
Special
Unani
Private
Charitable Teaching
Others
-Unique Characteristics: -
1) Intangibility: -
Intangibility means that a customer would have to visualize
the service offering. Since the offering cannot be seen or felt there
would be no stock and hence one would not be able to jeep a track of
ii) They can also not measure the benefits. These can only be
provided by him .
b) Association: -
hospitals.
c)Physical Representation :-
in enemy hospitals.
is
For Eg – If a doctor does not reach his dispensary on time or has his clinic
locked for that particular day. He loses all his patients for that day.
A situation may also arise when the doctor may be unable to attend to
some of his patients due to a huge rush. In such a case again the doctor
could lose out on all his patients.Same would be the situation faced by the
hospitals. In such a case the hospital too may lose all its patients for that
day.
a) In such a situation the doctor can appoint an assistant who could cater to
the excess patients or he could have students training under him who during
their course of training could also help him with the excess patients.
In a rush hour situation when there are too many customers to attend
For (eg 1) In hospitals during the late night when accident reportings are
3) Variability
It means that the quality of service provided to different people may not
be the same. (ie) Irrespective of the fact that the job carried out by them
is the same the service quality may differ because they may be from
reputed hospital may treat a person for the same problem. But their quality
For ( Eg) - A patient may want to avail of a doctors services but may not be
(Eg) A patient suffering from Arthritis may be required to lose weight for
further treatment. But the patient may not have the drive/willingness to
lose weight .
Solutions
1)The doctors could be given training and could be updated with all the
For (Eg )
AMA prescribes for its member doctors 6 weeks training every year and 6
4)Inseparability -
For any service to take place it is necessary that both the service provider
opportunity to get themselves treated from the very best surgeons and
doctors.
Solutions
operation. They could also carry out some small parts of the operation.
2)Innovational Service-
3) Video Conferencing
initated but mostly video conferencing has been used in the medical world
features of both intangible and tangible, seeking to satisfy the new wants
and demands of the consumer. Hospital industry is action oriented and there
improved.
o Accessories: This is a very good way of segmenting customers.
for the family members of the patients (when they are not
say rupees 1 lakh for all procedures, tests, stay, etc, at once.
factor of the service makes it all the more important for the
hospitals to do so.
Place
role. This focuses on the instrumentality of almost all who are found involved
the hospital.
a centre place unlike other normal hospitals, which you can find all over
other places.
might be famous for his case handling records but he may not be made
available for all the patients because of the place factor. Now in this case
the service provided, that is the doctor may be a visiting doctor for
Unlike other service industries, under hospital marketing all efforts should
be for making available to the society the best possible medical aid.
the population lives in the rural areas, place factor for the hospitals play a
very crucial role. A typical small village / town may be having small
dispensaries but they will not have super speciality hospitals. For that they
Under hospital marketing the marketing mix variable people includes all the
etc. The earliest and the best way of having control on the quality of people
and death, so the people factor is very important. One of the major
hospital the people factor has to be specially taken care of. In Indian
government hospitals except a few almost all the hospitals and their
this background that even if the users get the quality medical aid they are
found dissatisfied with the rough and indecent behaviour of the doctors.
Under hospital marketing a right person for the right job has to be
appointed and they should be adaptable and possess versatility. The patients
understood by the doctors and other staff. The people of the hospital
Process generally forms the different tasks that are performed by the
hospital. The process factor is mainly dependent on the size of the hospital
Apart from this flow there are other allied activities like record keeping
administration at services etc which fall under the process factor. These
stages do not exist separately but are interlinked. The most important
elements are lines of communication within the setup. The experience of the
It does play an important role in health care services, as the core benefit a
customer seeks is proper diagnosis and cure of the problem. For a local small
recent days some major super speciality hospitals are using physical evidence
Physical evidence can be in the form of smart buildings, logos, mascots etc. a
smart building infrastructure indicates that the hospital can take care of all
Examples -
the minds of the people, the impression that it is the safest option
2. Fortis and Apollo hospitals have a unique logo, which can be easily
identified.
taking into consideration the target customers, media type, budget and
Since a few years the prime times in T.V. are reserved for advertising
contraceptives, care for the girl child and so on. These commercials use
the common man approach for reference group appeal. In case of health
care products and services use for “common man” appeal is widely
man. An ordinary person thinks that if it works well for people like him, it
will also work equally well for him. The identification with the common
the urban area, in rural areas newspapers and magazines do not have the
writings near the markets and recreation centers attract the attention
group and a small income group. This group has a large discretionary
care services. The last decade has witnessed a health, appearance and
fourth of our population stays in urban India, three fourths of the total
visit the contiguous rural areas, but they may operate from the urban
area. The patients of upper middle and upper income group have a wide
person in need of a health care service does not know for sure where to
relations and friends first. The patients who come to a hospital generally
number of advertisements.
In a competitive market place, the images of the firms swill affect their
impact on the health care scene is the growth of hospital chains such as
and other complex operations although are few in number and generate a
the eighties, when very few hospitals realised that it was necessary to
professional orientation was really required for its viability, profitability and
as corporate companies like Wockhardt and Max India started venturing into
the hospital industry, apart from the ongoing mergers and acquisitions that
were already taking place at that time. Even the TPAs started building tie-
ups with corporate clients and there was already an abysmal utilisation of
they felt that the patients would take them as profit oriented organisation
around corporate clients. Lately it has been felt that many Indian hospitals
hospitals are experiencing a major shift in their clientele, they are worried
more about the patients’ perception of hospitals and therefore the concept
becomes necessary, that they attract patients and generate funds. In order,
to do the same, the hospitals follow various marketing and brand building
corporates refer them to the PPO’s , which further sends them to the
where they invite the doctors from all round the country, for detailed
discussion. This makes the hospital well known amongst the doctors,
infrastructure.
SOME PLAYERS
Apollo Hospital in Delhi is the fourth largest corporate hospital in the world.
The Apollo group is India’s first corporate hospital, the first to set-up
hospital outside the country and the first to attract foreign investment.
With 2600 beds, Apollo is one of Asia’s largest healthcare players. The
Limited, will help the group raise money at a better rate and by consolidating
inventory, it will save around 10% of the material cost. The group is planning
to invest Rs. 2000 crore , to bulid around 15 new hospitals, in India, Sri
over 7.4 million treated patients, 3,15,000 preventive health checks done,
98.5 percent success rate in 45,000 cardiac surgeries, etc. And helping the
automation drive within the company. The management realised the fact that
in order to have a modern hospital in place all the work processes had to be
related to IT. Hence, the need for an end-to-end integrated solution. This
The hospital today boasts of an integrated HIS, which provides for end-to-
end integration of the various processes and functional areas within the
hospital are primarily divided into two areas the patient (comprising of in-
patient and out-patient) and the non-patient all the back-end departments
The workflow process starts with the patient seeking an appointment with
patient is given the date and time of appointment. This information is then
fed into the system and the updated information is available to the doctor in
real-time.
On the date of his appointment, the patient registers himself at the counter
the patient. This data is feeded into the system with a Unique Hospital
Identifier (UHI) number allotted to the patient so that by the time the
patient meets the doctor, he already has all the required basic information.
the doctor gives his prescription, the data is again keyed into the system as
a patient record under his UHI and is accessible for quick reference.
thereby saving precious time, which means a lot when it comes to saving a
life. HIS also acts as a kind of ERP for the hospital with its automation of
various back-end areas like financial, accounting and inventory, which are
The hospital has also developed a very effective mailing system for its
company.
Hospitals Group, has already set up over 10 telemedicine links between the
everyone, and not just to people who live in big cities. The group has forged
and abroad, and provides their clientele access to better healthcare in areas
A patient and his doctor can interact with specialists based in the specialty
specialty canter using the telemedicine software and the communication link,
-Apollo Pharmacy
Apollo Pharmacy operates round the clock catering to all your medicine
needs.
-Café Apollo
Café Apollo is a sit down dining facility of the hospital. It offers a wide
For the convenience of ICU attendants there is a 24 hours cafe in the ICU
lobby.
-Gift Shop
The Gift Shop carries a wide range of gifts including Confectionery, Cards,
-Bank Facilities
Bank Hours
- Fortis Healthcare
Fortis is the late Ranbaxy’s Parvinder Singh’s privately owned company. The
company is a 250 crore, 200 bed cardiac hospital, located in the town of
Mohali. The company also has 12 cardiac and information centres in and
around the town, to arrange travel and stay for patients and family. The
company has plans of increasing the capacity to around 375 beds and also
plans to tie up with an overseas partner.
Max India
After selling of his stake in Hutchison Max Telecom, Analjit Singh has
decided to invest around 200 crores, for setting up worldclass healthcare
services in India. Max India plans a three tier structure of medical services
– Max Consultation and Diagnostic Clinics, MaxMed, a 150 bed multispeciality
hospital and Max General, a 400 bed hospital. The company has already tied
up with Harvard Medical International, to undertake clinical trials for drugs,
under research abroad and setting up of Max University, for education and
research.
Escorts
EHIRC located in New Delhi has more than 220 beds. The hospital has a
total 77 Critical Care beds to provide intensive care to patients after
surgery or angioplasty, emergency admissions or other patients needing
highly specialized management including Telecardiology (ECG transmission
through telephone). The EHIRC is unique in the field of Preventive
Cardiology with a fully developed programme of Monitored Exercise, Yoga
and Meditation for Life style management.
Indian healthcare industry has the potential to show the same exponential
growth that the software and pharmaceutical industries have shown in the
past decade. Further, as per the IRDA, only 10 percent of the market
potential has been tapped till date and market studies indicate a 35 percent
growthin thecomingyears.
A big opportunity for the industry emerges from the privatisation of the
India. There is a vast insurable population in India, given that only 2 million
people ie 0.2 percent of the total population are covered under Mediclaim.
According to a recent study, there are 315 million potentially insurable lives
in the country.
A World Health Organisation report states that India needs to add 80,000
hospital beds each year to meet the demand of its population. The huge
strength of Indian innovative and scientific manpower and also low costs, it
shall not only employ the largest chunk of all available capital but shall also
Industry shall grow at an accelerated pace and will achieve a Growth Rate of
decade.
specifically affect the Medical and Surgical Supply Segment and there too,
In the next decade, the Earth's Population shall reach a peak number. This,
& Intensive Healthcare; while new cost effective modalities shall provide
These new modalities shall not follow the rigid standards as set for
These modalities shall augment the Home Care, as is available in the Joint
Family Environment to more than half the population of world today. This will
with more than 250 beds don’t do well. Many Indian hospitals are
that 80% of the revenues form a patient comes in the first 72 hours
corporates are planning for a small 100 beds specialized hospitals, which
500 bed capacity takes about 9-10 years to break even whereas super-
specialty hospitals with about 100 beds take about 6-7 years to break
hospitals run by Trusts do not earn this way, but new entrants or
their line of business ( eg. Pharma companies), can generate good returns
healthcare packages, optimize the benefits while keeping the cost under
control.
practically.
5. Hospitals can become integrated healthcare systems i.e. when medicines,
food services, laundry and linen etc will become "purchased" services.
6. Mergers could be used for synergy of skills - i.e. to help the merged
them across the board. It also helps them to make joint investments in