APOLLO HOSPITALS: DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH HOSPITALITY

Group-1
(MS5560: Service Operation Management)
1) What strategy should be used to reduce the numbers of complaints and
sustain the culture of excellence at Apollo hospitals, Bangalore under the
leadership of Dr Panyala ?

An integrated system

The complaints system should be integrated into the work of the whole
organization. This means that:

Complaints are used to identify gaps in the quality of the service,

Investigation of complaints is collaborative, and
Information is shared among management teams (including clinicians and
quality improvement teams), administrators and consumers.

In a fully integrated system, complaints can highlight adverse events that may
otherwise have been overlooked. Furthermore, complaints data can be aggregated
with incidents data to provide more complete information.

Feedback Loop:

Creating a system where feedback is

encouraged allows for consumers to
make positive comments as well as
complaints.

Better use of Technology

Use of technology at its fullest not only

for the treatment purpose (generating
report quickly etc.), but also for
hospitality can help hospitals to win
customers loyalty.

Use of Analytics:

Collected feedback from customers on a regular basis can be stored and Analytics
can be used on top of that data to predict the system to make it efficient which will
help the hospital to give better experience to their patients in terms of treatment as
well as hospitality.

Availability of Doctors and Nurses 24/7

Ultimate aim of a hospital is to provide good treatment and for that, Doctors and
nurses should be available to handle any emergency situation.

Policies

The hospital needs to have policies on how complaints will be handled and on how
adverse events will be treated. These policies need to be clear to all staff.

Promotion

The organization demonstrates that it actively seeks feedback from consumers and
their families through the way it promotes the complaint process. The complaint

APOLLO HOSPITALS: DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH HOSPITALITY

Group-1
(MS5560: Service Operation Management)
process should be advertised widely and it should be clear to patients and their
families how they can make comments about the service or express their concerns.
The overriding message from
The organization needs to be that all feedback is welcome, whether positive or
negative.

Staff training and support

An organization that is committed to better complaint handling will ensure that its
staff is properly trained.

Tracking

Once the complaint is recorded, there must be a system for tracking complaints. A
computerized system will enable flags to be sent to relevant staff for them to take
action. The complaints manager is responsible for coordinating complaints.
Monitoring of complaints
Progress, particularly more serious complaints, should be a regular agenda item at
quality and risk management meetings.

Data collection

To ensure that systemic problems can be identified and dealt with, it is most
important that organizations have adequate data collection tools. This will enable
data to be aggregated and analyzed to identify trends. This will also ensure wider
transparency and public accountability, which are key aspects of a high quality
health care system.
Good data collection means the organization can:
learn from mistakes,
identify systemic issues,
reduce risk in the future.

Reporting

This is an essential element of an integrated system. There must be systems set up

to report on the outcome of complaints, as well as a system for analyzing and
reporting on trends identified by complaints.
Reporting has three main components:
Reporting to the consumer, family or friend who made the complaint (this is
discussed further in the section on Complaint handling processes).
Reporting to the quality systems of the organization and to senior management
to enable decisions to be made regarding organizational change, policies and
resourcing.
Reporting to staff both to staff involved in a complaint and, if there are broader
issues involved, staff to inform them of changed procedures/policies and to
facilitate learning and change. Complaints can be used as a concrete example of
why change might be needed.

APOLLO HOSPITALS: DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH HOSPITALITY

Group-1
(MS5560: Service Operation Management)
2) Given the manual intensive process involved in addressing the
hospitality issue, what is good sigma level? Could Apollo set a target for
sigma level in hospitality?Presently period from march 2011 to December 2012
1434 complaint were received from among the 138600 in patients treated during
the period which makes approximately 1.03% complaints

The company objective should be reach sigma level of 6 which can only be achieved
by working upon certain key aspects
A good sigma level in hospitality industry will be to work upon these aspects

Smooth admission procedure

Friendly medical and non medical staff
Comfortable furniture
Varied choices of food menu
Attractive surroundings
Recreational facilities
Privacy
Clear signposting
Adequate Provision for the visitors

Apollo Can definitely set a target sigma level if it works upon two important
challenges
1. Patients sentiment towards the hospitality provided

APOLLO HOSPITALS: DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH HOSPITALITY

Group-1
(MS5560: Service Operation Management)
2. Design a process improvement plan that is affordable

How to achieve?
Customer feedback-treating each complaint as a defect
All services that did not require core clinical expertise were classified as hospitality
service, including service such as billing, dietician service, food and beverages,
facility housekeeping ,nursing, facility an overall operations. All the metrics defined
and mapped can be helpful as a sigma metrics.
Results

Quantitative improvement
Working on each problem as defect would not only help in reducing the number of
complaints but also improve the service levels
Word Frequency count-word frequency count will help in improving the problem
areas which will help in benchmarking

Quality improvement
DMAIC framework-will help in working upon one problem caused by many
different other problems