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EXCELLENCE

IN HOSPITAL
LEADERSHIP
Learnings From The Second Hospital Leadership Summit

Edited by Prof. Nirmal Kumar Ganguly and Prof. Piyush Kumar Sinha
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EXCELLENCE
IN HOSPITAL
LEADERSHIP
Learnings From The Second
Hospital Leadership Summit

Editors
Prof. Nirmal Kumar Ganguly, Editor-in-Chief
Prof. Piyush Kumar Sinha, Executive Editor

Editorial board members


Dr. D.S. Rana
Dr. Devi Shetty
Dr. Naresh Trehan
Sangita Reddy

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

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Published By: TABLE OF CONTENTS
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
Vastrapur, Ahmedabad 380015
Editorial board 06
Acknowledgment 07
Copyright @ 2016 Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad Note from the Editor-In-Chief 08
Message from the patron 12
Foreword 15
First edition, 2016
Building hospitals for people 16
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval a. Leadership 18
system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without b. What does the future hold? 20
either written prior permission of the publisher. Any opinion c. Integration All parts must work as one to deliver care 21
expressed in this book is personal of the speakers and the
d. Capitation 22
authors and not of their organisations.
e. Technology You need to think of it in terms of ROIs 22
f. Physician leadership Make investments with a long-term view 23
Printed and Bound by:
g. In conclusion 25
Sky Print The war for talent 26
22, A2 Shah and Nahar Industrial Estate,
Dhanraj Mill Compound, Sitaram Jadhav Marg, a. Talent pool creation challenges 28
Lower Parel (W), Mumbai - 400013 b. Building and retaining talent pool 29
Tel. : 43471715 / 14
c. The way forward 32
Email: www.skyprint.co.in
Bridging the promise delivery gap 34
This publication is supported by a. Leadership 36
Abbott Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.
b. Managing customer experience 38
c. The people around 39
www.abbott.in
d. Ways to bridging the gap 40
Integrating consumers with hospitals Reaching the next level 42
This Publication has been developed and designed by Velocita Brand Consultants Pvt. Ltd., Pune in association with
Indian Institute of Ahmedabad and Abbott Healthcare Pvt Ltd for education intended to be circulated only to a. Understanding the needs of the changing consumer 44
hospital leaders. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily
reflect the views of Abbott Healthcare Pvt Ltd. Although greatest possible care has been taken in compiling, b. Customer is the culture 45
checking and developing the content to ensure that it is accurate and complete, Abbott Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., is not
responsible or in any way liable for any injury or damage to any persons in view of any reliance placed on or action
taken basis of the information in this presentation or any errors, omissions or inaccuracies and/or incompleteness
c. Evolving role of the stakeholders 45
of the information in this presentation, whether arising from negligence or otherwise. Abbott Healthcare Pvt.
Ltd. neither agrees nor disagrees with the views expressed in this publication and does not constitute or imply an d. Collaboration is the key 46
endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation of any kind.
e. Aim for customer satisfaction 47
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EDITORIAL BOARD ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Prof. nirmal kumar ganguly This book has been made possible due to the
Ex Director General, ICMR, Editor-in-Chief support and guidance from the leaders of the
He is a distinguished research professor of Biotechnology, Department of healthcare industry, from all over the world,
Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India. He has published 757 papers and who participated in the summit. The knowledge
supervised 130 PhD/MD thesis. they shared at the forum is truly invaluable.
We are grateful to the participants for sharing
their experiences, and their inquisitiveness that
has become a hallmark of Hospital Leadership
Prof. Piyush Kumar Sinha Summit. Their support and guidance has helped
Professor (Retailing and Marketing), Executive Editor us expand our intellectual horizons in the
With a stint of over 20 years spanning across academics and corporates, he has a healthcare sector.
long-standing association with the world of marketing and academics.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge our
patrons, the team at Abbott, technical support,
Dr. D. S. Rana researchers and the individuals who have helped
us shape this book its content and structure.
Chairman, Sir Gangaram Hospital, Member
Their dedication and hard work has been
He is an honorary senior consultant at Sir Gangaram Hospital, New Delhi, the
instrumental in the success of the project.
chairman of the Dept. of Nephrology, and the secretary of SGRHs board of
management.

Dr. Devi Shetty


Chairman, Narayana Health, Member
He is a philanthropist and a cardiac surgeon. He has leveraged economies of
scale to provide affordable healthcare.

Dr. Naresh Trehan


Chairman and Managing Director, Medanta, Member
He is a renowned cardiothoracic surgeon. He has served as personal surgeon to
the President of India.

Sangita Reddy
Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals, Member
A member of the founding family, Sangita has been associated with the Apollo
group for over 30 years. Her association spans patient care, human resources,
and operations.
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NOTE FROM THE Bermuda Triangle

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
To remain a leader, three questions need to be answered:
1. Is there uniqueness?

This book is an abstract from the Hospital Leadership 2. How to provide for sustainability?
Summit, which was conceptualized to explore ideas and 3. How to remain profitable while doing so?
expand the intellectual horizon of the healthcare sector. To
These become much more pertinent in markets with a very high demand, as the
continue extending boundaries of possibilities, leaders must
cost and effort of customer acquisition are both low. Uniqueness, sustainability and
keep their organizations relevant to customers, employees
profitability together form a metaphoric Bermuda Triangle described thus, because
and other stakeholders. As times change and new challenges
businesses that are aware of the pitfalls are able to navigate them and run as usual.
arise, only organizations that are adaptive in their functioning
But those failing to understand the dangers of this Bermuda Triangle, or are unable
will survive and grow.
to manage it, will sink without a trace, perhaps, while believing they have been doing
Against this background, the main questions posed to everything right.
hospital leaders are:
1. How can they remain relevant today and in the future? Uniqueness, in this context, is not so much about being Sustainability Profitability
2. Which route should they take the well-trodden path or a different, but about the ability of the consumer to
revolutionary one? differentiate the service and treatment that is provided.
PROF. PIYUSH KUMAR SINHA The biggest gap in healthcare is the information
Professor of Marketing and 3. How to be differentiated by consumers, sustainably and
asymmetry between the service provider and the
Retailing at IIM Ahmedabad continuously?
consumer. It creates opaqueness in the minds of the
consumer. Diffusing this opaqueness is the biggest
Relevancy challenge for any service provider in the industry. The
The two most important factors that can ensure relevancy in way it is done, the better it is done, the more differently
the future are efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is about it is done, impacts the successful building of a businesss
processes and the way businesses work. Efficiency largely uniqueness. Uniqueness
works with controllable variables of a healthcare system,
Figure 1: Bermuda Triangle
such as predefined processes; dealing with people working Sustainability of the business is ensured when
within the organization, sets of suppliers, etc. Effectiveness companies remain relevant to consumers through
is about conducting business in a away that consumers innovations and by introducing new ways of service
and other stakeholders find it relevant to be associated delivery, as the lives of consumers evolve. While
with the organization. Both of these consumers and the resources are needed, hospitals also need to develop
environment are uncontrolled variables. dynamic capabilities. The current environment is
characterized by highly informed consumers who are
The term consumer encompasses the caregivers, community, impatient and demand a high level of overall services,
and society. Hence, to be effective, the organization has with good clinical performances as a given.
to build congruence with the objectives of individual
stakeholders, especially the employees and consumers.

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Profitability here is not just the profits or the margins, but reaching a state where one
can charge a premium over competitors, both in monetary and non-monetary terms.
This is where hospitals must strike a balance between the two goals of effectiveness and
efficiency.
Effectiveness is measured in terms of results delivered to patients, caretakers,
employees, shareholders, society, and ecology as per the expectations; efficiency is the
ratio of the output and input, making the highest profit with the least resources.

Connecting to the Consumers


All three components of this Bermuda Triangle uniqueness, sustainability and
profitability are about making the organization future perfect. To do so, leaders need
to look within and answer the following questions: What is it that I want to do? What
do I bring to the table? What are the values that I stand for?
Once the values and the objectives are defined, the three pegs of leadership
employees, consumers, and technology need to be managed and a connection needs to
be established between employees and consumers.
Peter Drucker believed that the
marketing and sales departments
should be dismantled. Each of these
departments believe that they own
the consumer, whereas the consumer Customers
is essentially owned by the company,
Planning
and not any individual department.
Wherever the consumer is owned by
one department it creates problems, as Delivery
people then work in silos. People
Leadership
This raises the question of how to Precision
connect people across the organization
with the consumer? How do they
understand the consumer? How do Technology /
consumers understand the people in Infrastructure

the organization? In management, it is


called socialization of the organization. Figure 2: Future Fitment

It is the bringing of consumers closer to


the organization through a responsive
process, where the organization Hence, the main challenge in healthcare
responds to the consumers needs today in being an adaptive hospital is
by adapting its service, people and managing the three pegs employee,
technology to deliver results through consumer and technology on a continuous
specific solutions. basis.
10 11
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MESSAGE FROM THE PATRON
Excellence in leadership comes from effective communication
Planning
both in terms of receiving feedback and responding to it.
Planning is an important element of leadership working A collaborative approach among
Leaders must have the ability to visualize the needs of the
towards excellence. The following examples showcase competitors can be advantageous as
patients and the society, and work towards devising methods
how appropriate planning can move the hospital hospitals can work smartly through a
to cater to these needs. It has to be based on proper planning,
towards excellence. collaborative approach, especially in cases
and executed keeping a holistic view, so that most can benefit
where a huge investment has to be made in
from it. Leaders must adapt to innovation to provide better care Narayana Hrudayalaya, while setting up the cardiology buying equipment.
more conveniently and create effective brands to reach a wider unit, planned the distribution of beds according to the
population. distribution of cardiovascular diseases in Karnataka. Holistic Approach
This planning helped the hospital serve the required
Leaders have to approach the management
PROF. N K GANGULY number of beds, creating supply according to the
Having a Vision with a holistic point of view where
Past Director General, ICMR demand thus avoiding both over-crowding and
everyone benefits. One hospital has
A leader must be able to visualize the needs of the patient or the underutilization.
planned its economics according to the
needs of the person whom they are serving, to be able to serve different economic strata of the patient;
them better. The real leadership is in communicating with the An important aspect of planning is financial aid. As
hospitals are generally never adequately funded, they enabling patients from all strata to get
people and serving their needs. The following examples illustrate treated equally. They work on a model
how having a clear vision can be built into reality. The Bhopal Gas hospital was need to learn how to serve better during economically
established to serve the gas challenging situations. For instance, when there was whereby they ask the patients the fee
victims of the Bhopal tragedy, a recession in South East Asia, people in Thailand they can pay basis the slab set for each
Dr. Badrinanath had a vision to set up a hospital with special
with the vision to reach every did not suffer much, but people in South Korea did. procedure. Accordingly, some of the
features, where there would be no crowding, where patients
part of the city and reduce the This is because Thailand had invested very heavily in patients pay what they can while some
could come at their own convenience, and when they were
burden on the main hospital. tertiary care, but people did not have money to access may not pay at all. It works on a holistic
served they would feel enriched. Through this vision he
For this, six fully equipped these services. So during that period they moved their approach to serve the society.
established Shankar Netralaya, which is not only known for its
patient care but also for its focus on education and research. outreach centers were set up money, to primary care and later, moved it back to
Hospitals are not all about doctors, they
The value of this ultimately percolated to the faculty who have where patients could be treated. tertiary care, as the result of which they survived. They
comprise people with various skills and
become world leaders in their own fields. Smart cards were created that had an intelligent system. Every hospital and every
leaders who can visualize needs and
would hold patient records. This leadership should have an intelligent system through
respond to them. The L V Prasad Eye
The second example is of a health minister of Bangladesh, who helped the main hospital to serve which they should gather information and then design
Institute has roped in clinicians, engineers,
wanted to set up an institute for diabetes, where he wanted the patients better, as when the it to be able to weather such circumstances.
and designers to work on a collaborative
to digitize patient records to be able to do research and boost patient was referred to the main
When it comes to investing in high-end technological platform to address eye care problems
patient care and services. He created [BIRDEM], the Bangladesh hospital, all of his/her data would
solutions, such decisions have to be thought through by through cutting-edge technology that is
Institute of Research and Rehabilitation for Diabetes. be available on the card.
leaders to see that it is a little profitable and that more simpler, more accessible, and affordable.
people are able to use these facilities, and that it can
be used for further research. All this requires precise
planning on the part of the leader, one small defect in
the planning can destroy everything.
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Technological Advancement FOREWORD
Almost the entire healthcare service is moving towards Improvement of access and quality of healthcare is a
becoming technologically oriented, including point of care priority for the both Government and the Industry. A
diagnostics that are reaching homes. Hospitals have no choice number of important changes have been initiated over
but to acknowledge these trends and equip themselves with the past few years to transform healthcare in India. With
the technologies that will enable them to reach people and increase in awareness and education amongst healthcare
resolve their problems. And these could also be very cost customers, the roles of hospitals and the expectations
effective, in a way that it doesnt only earn revenue, but also from them are evolving. Hospitals have and will continue
enhances reach to remote places. to play a key role in driving growth and expansion in the BHASKER IYER
Vice President
One change that major hospitals need to make a note of is healthcare industry, and thereby help cater to a much
Established Pharmaceuticals India
the fact that today, a majority of people are dying at home higher level of demand.
For a country as vast as India, where
and not in hospitals. The care needs to reach homes. There Organisations around the world strive to provide the best
healthcare access and education is an issue,
are home-use devices that measure aspects, such as blood clinical, physical and emotional experience to patients
technology can play a key role. However,
sugar, hemoglobin, check ECG; there are also portable Echo- and families. Designing processes and services while
hospitals have not been able to leverage the
cardiograms, and equipment that have sensors that diagnose empathizing with customer needs, is key to delivering
full potential of technology so far. Effective
pneumonia. Patients can send images to caregivers, who can care that can truly meet the needs of everyone.
use of technology such as tele-medicine,
then advise. Understanding and accommodating the needs of the mobile hospitals, data analytics etc. are
customer has been and will continue to be at the core pivotal in implementing processes and
Creating a Brand of the Hospital Leadership Summit (HLS). In the healthcare delivery mechanisms, while
previous editions of HLS, we have seen how hospitals are maintaining cost efficiencies.
Creating a brand is an important task of the leadership. Each
challenging the norm to deliver better healthcare through
hospital is unique and to create a brand, the leader needs to Helping hospitals to address the shift to a
improvements in talent, technology and processes. The
identify a USP or a differentiated offering that will attract customer driven market, is something that
purview of hospitals is fast changing from just delivering
customers. the Hospital Leadership Summit aims to do.
a comfortable patient experience to delivering a robust
Abbotts endeavor is to provide a knowledge
Gangaram hospital has invested heavily in research and integrated health experience, both inside and outside
sharing platform to build on everyones
education, and has set up an institute for research and hospitals from cure to care.
collective work and eventually help benefit
education. Almost 20-25 of their clinical departments Which brings us some of the key issues that hospitals the customer. We are thankful to all the
conduct state-of-the-art research, which they publish, get face today. Retaining and attracting talent is a key participants and especially to the Indian
grants, and become known around the world for. The faculty challenge for hospitals today coupled with the fact that Institute of Management, Ahmedabad our
goes and presents their papers and the organization gets most hospital CEOs have advanced medical expertise, knowledge partner, for the academic rigor
positively branded, which ultimately helps in building a but do not have sufficient forum to hone administrative they bring.
positive image of the hospital. skills. This calls for attracting quality talent across all
To sum up, real leadership comes For almost 130 years, Abbott has been at the
A saint in Haridwar has established a 300 bed hospital when you respond to needs with leadership functions into the healthcare system, including
forefront of breakthrough innovations and
with modern amenities. It has created its own rules; where a vision to turn it into reality administrators, who partner with healthcare professionals
products that help unlock human potential
no one tips. The hospital is a riot of colors, with beautiful and have a holistic approach in ensuring that services run as efficiently and effectively
through the power of health. As we get
paintings all around, and even the patients wear colorful tempered with proper planning. as possible. Developing physician leaders can be a
ready for the third edition of this summit,
dresses. Patients choose between 6-7 kinds of meals prepared The leader has to look at the differentiator that sets organisations apart, because if this
we bring you a compilation of thoughts
by nutritionists. His vision was to build a hospital where future, adapt to technological is done right, it ensures the success of the organization
from the previous year, on leadership,
treatment is free. Today, it attracts even the rich. The hospital changes, and create a unique as a clinical enterprise, and not simply as a business
technology, talent and other topics, but
is now expanding to 600 beds. brand. enterprise.
always with a focus on the customer.
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BUILDING HOSPITALS
FOR PEOPLE
Prof. Robert Pearl, Executive Director and CEO, The
Permanente Medical Group

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Better leadership is seen as central to help improve both quality of healthcare
and organizational processes.1 Healthcare is faced with complex challenges that
may differ with each country or region, but the right leadership is seen as the
LEADERS HAVE A VISION OF
SOMETHING DIFFERENT IN
posed solution to most of these. Leadership is about providing vision, aligning FUTURE, BASED ON EXTREME

people to the vision, and motivating them to move forward.
REALITY.
The vision to work towards building hospitals for people needs the interactions
Leaders need to have a vision of something very different in the
within a complex adaptive system. The integration becomes more important
future a vision that is based on external reality, not something
than the discrete actions of the individual parts.2 Technology plays a major role
based on simply a whim, a mirage or hallucination. The reality of
in predicting, comprehending, and integrating the system across. It acts as a
the United States and India today is different. The United States
major driver of performance, along with adding value. Development of physician
has a majority of population that is insured; in India the majority Prof. Robert Pearl
leadership is another important element of integration where physicians play a
of population is not insured. The US has redundancy of hospital
cohesive role in management to move the hospital to the population.
beds for population being treated, and the goal of hospital leaders
is to bring more people in. However, in India, there are far more
patients than the hospital bed capacity or that can be taken; the
Leadership
challenge for leaders in India is to make care affordable, so that

MANAGERS MAKE
Align people around a bigger section of the population can come in. Hospital systems
that vision in both the countries need to figure out how to get better at what
THINGS HAPPEN. they do.

LEADERS MAKE The main challenge that lies in front of India is to restructure the
THINGS HAPPEN healthcare industry in order to make it financially viable for the
larger segment of the population. For this to happen, the leaders
THAT OTHERWISE of the industry have to change from thinking about a hospital to
WOULD NOT BE thinking about the population. And to do so, they have to work


on integration of the entire system, from the delivery system to
POSSIBLE. the outpatient preventive services.

Create a vision Motivate them to


move forward
Figure 3: Three essentials to excellence in leadership

The notion of vision is the idea about where are we going.


It is like the experience of being in a forest where you
cant see anything besides the trees. One person thinks
we should go straight, other thinks about going left, and
another right. However, as soon as you see a mountain at a
distance, you know thats our destination and thats where
we all should go.

References:
1-Hartley, J., & Benington, J. (2010). Leadership for healthcare. Policy Press.
2-Plsek, P. E., & Wilson, T. (2001). Complexity, leadership, and management in healthcare organizations.
BMJ: British Medical Journal, 323(7315), 746.
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What does the future hold? Integration All parts must work as one to deliver care
The US is on the trajectory of having to make radical changes. What does integration mean? Integration means both horizontal and vertical
And in that sense, India is building upwards, the US has got integration.
to curb downwards. Both have got to do exactly the same
thing. To achieve this, the following 4 things have to be done- Horizontal integration is when primary and specialty care work together. A
horizontally integrated system moves patients from primary to specialty or brings
Healthcare needs to become integrated. Integration expertise from Calcutta to Delhi or from Delhi to Bangalore via technology, like
means that primary and specialty care work together. video calling that overcomes difference of time and is available at a minimal cost.
Outpatient and inpatient care, the insurance limb, the
financing limb, the physicians, the hospital, the care Vertical integration works on a different set of relationships, moving from the
delivery, all parts come together and work as one. hospital to the population. It can be an integration of all the important components.
If a patient is seeing a primary care physician and needs a referral to a specialist,
Its got to be capitated, prepaid: A payment method before the patient leaves the office, a connection can be made through a telephonic
where physician, hospital, or other health care provider interview with the specialist. And together they can talk about the patients problem.
is paid a contracted rate for each member assigned, is It means that the patient can avoid having to travel by three buses to get to the
referred to as per-member-per-month rate, regardless specialist by just taking half an hour of the specialists time, and the problem is
of the number or the nature of services provided. The solved immediately, at a far lower cost.
contractual rates are usually adjusted for age, gender,
illness, and regional differences1. But this has to be done
with not just that one piece or another, but with the
entire system. It has got to be prepaid at the delivery
system, not just the insurance system.

It must be technologically enabled, which is a Starting from the right side, there are high end tertiary hospitals, the community hospital, the outpatient
facility, the office and the patient at home is at the extreme left. Every movement, from right to left, helps
comprehensive electronic health record and its also in providing care more conveniently, more rapidly, and at lower cost.
a major use of novel technology, including video and
digital.
Finally, integration can help in accomplishing the movement from right to left. An
And, finally, its got to have physician leadership, because inpatient environment can be moved to an outpatient one, and its less expensive.
physicians are unlikely to follow and make changes The opportunity to use vertical integration, and the planning between capital
unless they respect and trust the leaders. investments and care delivery; and best aligning it to the needs of the population,
now allow generating the margin in the most effective way.
References:
1-Mosbys Dental Dictionary, 2nd edition. 2008 Elsevier, Inc.

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Capitation Prepaid is the way to go, not just with
insurance but the entire delivery system HERE,
DATA HELPS US TAKE ACTION TODAY, NOW AND
REDUCING COST TO HOSPITALS AND
The idea of pre-payment, now called capitation, can align the
interest of the patients with the physician, and it can work in CUSTOMERS.
India as well. Pre-payment capitation makes hospitals focus Sepsis is an interesting area where data analytics has Technology has to be calculated in terms
on how to provide prevention, because it is less expensive worked wonders. Sepsis accounts for about 2% of of ROI. One part is lowering the cost;
to prevent a heart attack than to treat one. It focuses on hospital admissions and 16% of deaths in hospitals another is improving the population. It
how to make sure the care is most safe, because a medical in the US. About 8 years ago, looking at the mortality has to be in context of multiple years.
complication would end up having a higher cost. Prepayment in hospitals, it was found that the rate of mortality Prevention may not change cardiac
makes hospitals identify disease and intervene sooner, and dropped and suddenly flattened out. The database was outcomes in 5 years, but it does after 5
make care more efficient and effective. An example of this is checked to find out what was going wrong, as patients years. Hypertension control does not
the Kaiser Permanente organization, which is able to control with heart attacks and stroke the traditional killers change stroke for 10 years, but it does
blood pressure almost 90% of the time, whereas the rest of are usually taken care of. Instead, it was found that the after 10 years, and probably for kidney
the United States does 55%. It has provided the opportunity number one cause of death was sepsis. failure too. Hence, it has to be a long term
to lower the chances of patient dying of heart diseases by investment and ultimately quality will lead
30% as compared to competition. This was made possible by Looking further it was found that almost 40% of people to lower cost.
being able to provide care sooner through coordinated and who died came to the hospital with sepsis and were

LEADING
preplanned delivery systems. very sick. However, 60% had no evidence of septicemic
infection when they came in. Then the two populations HOSPITALS
Technology You need to think of it in terms of ROIs
with the same disease were comparedthose who lived ACHIEVE QUALITY,
and those who died. It was determined that the people
There is a huge opportunity that lies in using technology to Data analytics is another technology who died had intermediate lactate levels indicating COST AND
reach the population. The first opportunity is video. Video that can help to identify people in the possibility of sepsis. Hence, it was decided to treat DELIVERY. NOT

can be used to provide care with an increasing frequency main surgical unit today, who will be patient with intermediate levels, as though they were
across time as it eliminates distance. The doctor can be in ICU tomorrow. Remember, they very sick. By doing so the mortality rate was reduced EITHER/OR.
anywhere, the patient can be anywhere. It eliminates time, the are not that sick, yet, but they are to 8% as compared to the national average of 16%. Its
patient does not have to schedule a visit, travel to the doctors going to get sick tomorrow. But data simply a matter of using technology, the systems, and
clinic and get the care; it can be provided at the same time. analytics can tell who they are today, data analytics.
It also reduces the cost. In 2015, 16 million in-person visits instead of waiting for tomorrow.
were made in Northern California, while 14 million were Because once they are sick enough to
virtual visits. get admitted, the mortality rate goes
Physician Leadership Make investments with a long-term view
up by a factor of 4. Mortality drives Physicians are not going to simply follow and make their ordering, their usage of different
Similarly, digital photography can be used. In the US, 70% changes, unless they respect and trust the leaders. medication, their technical ability. This
cost. It is significant, as by using data
of the patients are referred to dermatologists for rashes and Developing physician leadership requires a very initiative helps in identifying people with
analytics to predict tomorrow, supply
there is a delay of 4-6 weeks to see a dermatologist. This delay extensive program of training and development. the potential skill to become leaders at
can be matched to the demand and
can be avoided by the use of digital photography to provide Every physician who comes in can be given a mentor. some point.
massive variations can be avoided,
better quality, more convenience, better service, and at a The mentor spends a year with them, working on the
helping decrease the standard
lower cost totality of their care deliveryoutpatient and inpatient,
deviation.

22 | | 23
Another reason is for a chief s development the ability to train people who The opportunity is not doing all that elective work In Conclusion
are responsible for a department, such as cardiology, general surgery, or
orthopedist; is critical. Out of this, select group can undergo a management
A Aspirational
Vision
during the week and having idle time during the
weekend, but to move some of that elective work during
Finally, leaders first must have the vision
to move from a single hospital to a hospital
program to train executive leaders for taking over the hospitals and the the weekend so the physician is around to attend to system and to achieve this vision they
totality of the delivery system. Leadership development works as a long term
capital investment.
B Behaviour emergencies and take care of inpatients. have to integrate the various parts of the
hospital system, align to the vision, and
C stands for Context motivate them towards providing care

A stands for Aspirational Vision C Context Physicians are smart. However, physicians, like to the population, treating millions and
millions of people, rather than hundreds
most people, are resistant to change. They need
Aspiration is a combination of inspiration and reality. It must be inspirational contextualization to the leaders aspiration. Provide and thousands of patients. It is not just
or people are not going to care much. It also should have reality because if
its too big, it wont be accomplished. Hence, to create a population-based,
D Data them a with vision show them the context: why does
it make sense, and what will it achieve as the outcome?
driven by how to generate margins,
but with the belief that as the ratio of
fully-integrated hospital model, people need to know the reason behind doing population grows, all hospitals will do
so-to dramatically reduce stroke or to provide care for those who cant afford
it. Most importantly, this must be realistic. Physicians are mission driven,
E Engagement
D is for Data better together.

they have a purpose and really want to make the world better. Leaders need Data is going to be increasingly powerful in medical For this vision to be accomplished,
Figure 4: The model for
to touch their hearts and get them to want to go there, not because they are leadership development practice. It serves three purposes: it arms us with larger hospital planning is needed.
going to make money or because they are afraid of consequences. information of what happened in the past, whats And in this planning, integration of the
happening now, and whats likely to happen in the system can play a big role. It has to be
future. The most significant purpose of data is to a systematic integration of the whole
B stands for Behavior identify the bright spots and the positive deviators. ecosystem. Capitation can be a tool for the
It is important to create a road-map a strategic plan to turn vision into Look across 20 hospitals, there would always be better integrated functioning of the system, and
reality. Translate tasks into specific behaviors, which they can easily embrace. outcomes in some places in terms of utilization, quality, technology can be the enabler. However,
For instance, a doctor operates on the first patient, writes orders, talks to the or lower rates of infection. it can happen only with the inclusion of
family, completes other processes, and then moves to the next patient. There physicians who take up the role of leaders.
is a delay time in between. To take an idle time out of the operation room, And leaders have to decide to make the
E is for Engagement
the new situation can be adopted after finishing the surgery the doctor takes changes that are necessary and then move
the next patient to the operation room. While the anesthetist and others are People are averse to change and they tend to be the healthcare population dramatically
taking care of the patient, the doctor can go back to the first patient. The suspicious of leaders. The leader may have the right forward across time. The task is very big
physicians may find this behavior possible. Hence, the key is to provide a intention, but for people to trust the leader, he/she has but in the end, choice is more powerful
realistic solution that doesnt warrant a big behavioral change. to engage with them. It takes 17 exposures to learn a than circumstance.
word in a foreign language, or a new concept and get

CHOICE
Another example is in the Friday Night phenomenon. In the US most of the
doctors do not like to come to work on weekends. Hence, it means spending
people to understand what you are talking about. A
leader must be willing to engage with physicians. Talk IS MORE
two extra days in the hospital as compared to coming in on a Tuesday night. to them. Understand them. POWERFUL THAN
CIRCUMSTANCE.
Now think about that, an extra day in the hospital, lower quality, more
inconvenience, and higher cost. The role of leader is to provide them with a
solution where they dont have to sacrifice their family life while providing
more support to the hospital.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are that of the author
and do not reflect the views of Abbott, its subsidiaries, or
affiliates.
24 | | 25
THE WAR FOR TALENT
Discussion synthesized by Prof. Piyush Kumar Sinha
Based on the panel discussion moderated by Dr. Anil Khadelwal, former CMD, Bank of
Baroda, with Dr Ram Narain, Executive Director, KDAH; Dr. Azad Moopen, Chairman
& Managing Director, Aster DM Healthcare; Sachin Rajan, MD, Russell Reynolds
Associates; Dr. Nandakumar Jairam, Chairman & Group Medical Director, Columbia Asia
Hospitals; and Rajit Mehta, CEO & MD, Max Healthcare.

26 | | 27
Hospitals and healthcare are people businesses. What we see are the tangibles, This will help employees value the organization, and
such as buildings and equipment. Major investments go into these. However, a the time and money invested in nurturing them.
great hospital is built around its people. Beyond the doctors, the patients and
their caregivers also interact with other people in the hospital at different levels, In India, the challenge is to retain the talent. People
such as medical staff, housekeeping staff, technicians, receptionist, security working in India always want to move abroad. One
guard, lift men, cafeteria staff, and non-medico cadre like the billing attendant, way to retain people is to connect with them before
customer service head, finance head, and more. These are the people who can they are actually employed by the hospital. Large
ensure that patients and their caregivers have an overall pleasant experience that organizations and hospitals in India should establish
minimizes their pain. their own nursing and medical colleges to attract
talent, and hence be able to retain them. This will
In several studies across the world, human resources have come out as one of the also help generate a talent pool to fulfill the scarcity
major challenges for the healthcare industry. And this is an area where hospitals of people in the healthcare sector. There is a need
need to focus more when building hospital systems of tomorrow. to look at talent generation and retention, from a
wider perspective.

Talent pool creation challenges Building and retaining the talent pool
Hiring a person nowadays is extremely easy. But hiring the
Hospitals in India deal with a multi-generational
right person is challenging and important. The right person
diverse work force. It also acts like three different
needs to have competence, capability, and passion. The
industries under one roof, namely, hospitality, retail,
product of all the three is talent. This demand for talent and
and consulting. There is a dire need for more trained
people from hospitals is changing. In addition to medical and
talent. Current programs need to be evaluated for their
clinical manpower, there is a demand for people with strategy
ability to cope with the surging need of the industry.
and analytical skills and capabilities. The leadership is seeking
Patient engagement has become of utmost importance
people who can foresee the trend, analyze it, and develop
and it can be managed only when doctors are trained
a plan to leverage the changing trend and become more Sachin Rajan
for it. There needs to be an induction program for Dr. Azad Moopen
customer-centric. There is a need to think of acquiring
clinicians that focuses on soft skills, communication Large organizations and hospitals
a patient-centric leader instead of
and patient engagement. This will better equip them in India should develop their own
just thinking about the hospital.
For example, instead of Chief Nursing Officer, a nursing and medical colleges to
to meet consumer expectations. Every staff member,
representative of nurses, hospitals are now looking at a more attract talent and, be able to retain
including managers, nurses and other paramedics them.
patient-centric leader. Hospital top management needs
needs to undergo basic life skills training.
people with competencies to
(a) Carry people of diverse opinions together,
(b) Manage people in a context which is traditionally
under-managed,
(c) Be a salesperson.
It is easier to hire a fresher rather than someone who is Dr. Nandakumar Jairam
technically trained. Poaching, again, is commonplace, but it Poaching is common, but it
is not the best way of handling the workforce. It pushes up pushes up the manpower cost
manpower cost artificially. The best approach is to anticipate artificially. The best approach is
to anticipate the need and then
the need and then provide in-house training.
provide in-house training.
28 | | 29
The healthcare sector is still a transactional service-centric
model. This is the reason employees wish to enhance
transactional values, and it becomes difficult to retain them.
Retaining people is important and cannot solely be attributed
to tangible gains. Intangible gains that help them connect
with the organization are equally important and a leader
needs to communicate this effectively.

It is important to tell people that they are a valuable asset. Dr. Ram Narain
Money is not the only thing that connects our clinicians to Healthcare is still a transactional
the hospital, instead people connect more with the principles service-centric industry. This is
of the hospitals and imbibe them. Ironically, the healthcare the reason employees wish to
industry spends more on the maintenance of technology than enhance transactional values.
This makes it particularly
maintenance of its people. difficult to retain them.

If hospitals agree that their employees are their assets, then we Ironically, the healthcare
need to engage with them more deeply. The major problem industry spends more on the
with our hospitals is that staff engagement has always been maintenance of technology than
limited to a certain level. Leading hospitals have appointed people.
trained senior service officers who engage with the junior
staff. This helps instil confidence among employees and foster
a link with the organization. For example, a nurse going
through a nurse management program will think that she is of
importance to the hospital, which is why they are sending her
to this workshop. This is not just helpful for the organization,
but it pays dividends as well; additionally, helping retain
talent, as they get intangible benefits along with tangible ones.

Hospitals are generally a hotbed of anxiety. The only way to


deal with it is through empathy. Every staff member in the
hospital ought to be taught the value of empathy. Clinicians
can play an exceptionally important role in imbuing the
values of empathy in non-clinical staff.

Generally, it is seen that empathy is demonstrated by people


who have been in the system longer. Therefore, the senior
staff must help their juniors imbibe the quality of empathy.
However, this will work successfully only in a hospital that
moves away from a transaction-centric approach, and where
every employee clinical and non-clinical believes that they
are an asset to the organization and are inspired by its values.

30 | | 31
The way forward
Earlier when we used to hire people, we d basically Secondly, with regards to external hiring, hospitals must introspect on numerous
do a paper view. Someone who had the skill questions: Are they searching strictly for the best people in the industry? Are they
was hired but now this approach is not sufficient. searching for talent from good management institutions or specialized institutes?
We need to take a competency view. A few Are they creating refresher programs in association with leading institutions in
competencies that work for this sector are: areas of management, services, processes, systems and technology?
a) A person who has the competency to manage
high-skill and high-maintenance talent In doing so, it must also be understood that the healthcare industry cannot be
compared to other service sectors like hospitality or consultation business, as
b) Irreplaceable process orientation, so a
Rajit Mehta more than 80% of the services in a hospital is medical related. Clinical outputs
person with passion for learning, training and
Hospitals must start collaborating and services provided by doctors and nurses are crucial to the well-being of the
development builds replicability across institutions with institutions from other areas consumers. However, hospitals need to adopt a more humane approach towards
c) A person who is a great P&L manager, of expertise such as management, business. There needs to be a holistic approach when training the medico and non-
showcasing financial agility finance, process management and
medico talent in this sector. However, when looking for disruptive answers we can
service quality
Learning and development is extremely crucial look for people from other areas, as there is a surge in appetite for people to cross
since there is a crunch of good talent in this sector. over and work in the healthcare sector.
Hospital leaders need to focus, and invest heavily
developing and mentoring existing talent. Finally, leaders in healthcare need to view profit as a by-product. When leaders
work towards a bigger purpose, then that passion also trickles down to employees.
There is a need to think about talent in terms of And that will help make a difference in the areas; be it employee retention, the
internal and external sources. Hospitals must ask services you provide, or the role you play in society.
whether their own people are being managed,
recognized and utilized properly? Are opportunities
to rise up the ladder available to everyone? More Sachin Rajan
focus must be given to career growth opportunities The hospital top management
of nurses and other paramedical staff, as they need people with competencies to
constitute around 30-40% of the staff. Are we (a) Carry people of diverse
opinions together
investing in their training and development and
(b) Manage people in the context
showing them a career path? that is traditionally under-
managed
(c) Be a salesperson

32 | | 33
BRIDGING
THE PROMISE
DELIVERY GAP
Close the promise gap A scenario of over-promise and
under-delivery
- Larry Hochman
Ex-director of British Airways and Air Miles, Larry Hochman, is a renowned
international speaker, who helps companies develop a competitive advantage by
focusing on the future needs of both customers and employees.

34 | | 35
The biggest challenge with customers is closing The Promise Gap. This Intelligence is not a competitive edge any more.
is the Trust Deficit that most service companies suffer from, which Obviously, nobody hires or promotes stupid Leadership
becomes accentuated in case of healthcare due to the information people. The challenge is to create a culture that
asymmetry between patient and provider. It is also been known as the recruits, rewards and retains people who adapt.
expectationdelivery gap. Therefore, the organization, in conjunction
with the HR department, should establish a
A hospital through tangible and intangible cues tends to form benchmark for adaption of people at different
expectations among the customers. The tangible aspects are the building, levels. This would be the litmus test.
doctors, staff, equipment, infrastructure, fixtures, furniture, stationery and
surgical material used, etc. Similarly, the client lists, performance records, Dont stagnate, move on. Organizations and
employees should move on. The classic example PROMISE-
communication at various touch points, care and concern, timeliness and DELIVERY GAP
shorter waiting periods are some of the intangibles that also shape these is of Nokia. In 2004, Nokia was a global leader in
expectations. the mobile phone industry. Apple, on the other
hand, at that time did not make phones at all.
The promise gap is created by the actual versus perceived delivery as per Nokia stagnated and went out of business while
the expectations. While hospitals strive to bridge the gap, consumers tend Apple moved on and remained in the business.
to widen it as they gather experience from other service providers. The Standing still is detrimental to the career of the
core element of any relationship is trust. The situation of over-promising people and the profitability of the organization. People Customer
Expectation
and under-delivering is labeled a lie by consumers, and in todays digitally-
savvy world can be broadcasted online at any moment, sometimes in real It requires inter and intra-organization
time. collaboration (with colleagues, patients, their
families, government, media, business partners,
Therefore, hospitals need to create a customer-oriented leadership that suppliers and competitors). These healthcare
understands customer expectations and manages its people in line with its collaborations will help improve hospitals in
principles. villages, towns and cities.

Adaptation is a second nature to visionary


Leadership leaders. Species that have survived are not the
most intelligent but the ones that quickly adapted
It requires a committed and profound leadership to bridge the Promise
to change.
Delivery Gap. This would require a concrete vision, collaboration
and adaptation. As Nelson Mandela said, Vision without action is
meaningless. Leaders can have all the vision in the world, but it would
be meaningful only when they provide inspiration to the people around
them to act towards it. What really matters at the end of the day are your
actions. Leaders create their own luck with the choices and decisions they
make. Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity.

Leaders create a culture of collaboration within as well as outside the


organization. No one person alone can change things for the better.

36 | | 37
Managing customer experience The people around
Customer loyalty, customer care and customer service fit In terms of healthcare, patients consider the human interface. The dignity with
in the same arc of customer experience. CEOs should take which the patient was looked after is the most important element that adds value to
responsibility for creating a culture of superior customer their stay in the hospital. On their discharge, they only remember the doctor who
experience. Every organization should have a culture where saved their life, the nurses, and the attendants who looked after them, and not the
customer experience is every employees responsibility, and at machines and equipment. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the CEO to create a
every touch point. culture where human contact matters the most. Research has pointed out that with
higher technology adoption, there is less human interface in organizations. This
Create of a culture of empathy and humility. Empathy is needs to be curbed.
associated with kindness and is the key human quality required Larry Hochman
in the delivery of health care. Do unto others, as you would Information and choice give Feedback and on-time response.
have them do into you. This doctrine of kindness and humility people power and control.
should be understood by all-from top to bottom - in the We must create employee The feedback of the patients and the family should be taken seriously and
hospital. Disregard for it should be grounds for eviction of the value proposition and not immediately acted upon. The feedback can be both formal (feedback form on
person. cost proposition discharge) or informal (lift operators account of feedback overheard from the
patients and their family, etc.). Information and choice give people power and
Little things make a difference; ask your customers what is the control. What matters to employees is the value proposition and not the cost
one thing- which could also be a little thing - that matters the proposition.
most to you. The reason is that the customer feels valued, and Apple has the highest per square
secondly, the organization gets closer to the customer. The closer feet retail sales in the world, and,
you get to your customer, the smarter you are. consequently, an extremely high
customer experience. The sales
Customers are always in control. If one adapts to this, it will lead staff is highly knowledgeable and
to success, otherwise there would only be failure. It is a word- pro-actively helpful.
of-mouth economy. Recommendation and reputation are more
important than any marketing department. Feedback.
Focus on what your patients
Relationships are non-replicable. They cannot be copied or and caregivers want rather than
manufactured, and could end up being your most important what you want. This feedback
differentiator. They are built on care, empathy, and kindness. is possible with the aid of
Hence, the management should recognize, retain, and reward technology.
people. In context of the healthcare system, the discharge Ones biggest competitor is ones
process is generally viewed as bureaucratic. It is the last touch own view of the future. Your
point between the hospital and the patient and ,therefore, needs own view of the future needs
to be worked upon, wherein customers are dealt with care, to include that each person will
empathy, and kindness. Remember, trust is the core element of engage, debate with each other,
any relationship. share and adopt ideas with a
sense of ownership.
Enhancement of profitability comes by enhancing the customer
experience. It is an ongoing and unpredictable factor because
what is important to the customer will keep changing rapidly.

38 | | 39
Ways to bridging the gap
The promise-delivery gap tends to emerge from four different
sources. The first gap is caused by the difference between the
The final gap is caused by what an organization
promises about a service, and what it actually CUSTOMER
EXPECTATIONS ARE
actual customers expectations of the service performance and delivers. Service providers promises in many ways
the expectations perceived by the managers. Hospitals tend to shape customers expectations. An organization NOT STATIC. THE
lack an understanding of customers expectations, which are might over-promise or misrepresent customers
created by advertising, past experience with the organization through advertisement announcements, contact REAL CHALLENGE,
and its competitors, personal needs, and communication with
friends. They do not devote enough time to gain first-hand
personnel information, or other marketing
activities. Over-promises are made due to the lack
THEREFORE, IS
knowledge of customers. Also in most hospitals, there are too of integration and coordination between marketing, HOW DOES ONE
many management layers between the top management and
the front-line contact personnel. The strategy for closing this
communication, and operations. The organization
fails to perform according to specifications, whereas
SCORE WHEN THE
gap includes better communication between management and external communication follows these specifications GOAL POSTS ARE
its contact employees, better market research, and reducing the and peoples propensity to promise too much. To
CONTINUOUSLY

number of management levels. avoid this gap, leading hospitals pay attention to
making the customer communication accurate, SHIFTING
The second gap is the fault-line caused by the hospitals realistic, and also asking its employees to refrain
perceptions of customers expectations and the actual from making unrealistic commitments.
specifications that they establish for service delivery. It shows
the lack of commitment to quality, the degree of goal setting, the Interestingly, the expectations are not static. So, how
degree to which the service can be appropriately standardized does one score when the goal posts are continuously
and the perception of feasibility. It is found that commitment to shifting? This is where the service triangle becomes
service quality among management as well as service providers is critical. Leading hospitals have become so by
far more important to closing the quality specification gap than creating and nurturing leadership that drives people
any too-rigid goal-setting and planning procedure. to understand and deliver to customers what they
have promised and, once in while also exceed those
The third gap appears when employees are unable and/or expectations.
unwilling to perform a service at the desired level. The main
cause is the discrepancy between specifications of a service that
hospitals have established and meeting these in actual service
performance. Lack of cooperation, perceived control, employee-
job fit, trust and commitment are some other factors. In many
hospitals, these are also caused by technology-job fit conflict and
ambiguity of roles. Leading hospitals introduce effective internal
marketing in the organization, change the supervisory system,
and organize better employee training to remove this gap.

40 | | 41
INTEGRATING
CONSUMERS WITH
HOSPITALS REACHING
THE NEXT LEVEL
Based on the panel discussion moderated and synthesized by Prof. Piyush Kumar
Sinha, Professor of Marketing, IIM Ahmedabad, with Dr. Naresh Trehan, Chairman
& Managing Director, Medanta Hospitals; Santosh Desai, MD & CEO, Future Brands;
Meena Ganesh, CEO & MD, Portea Medical; and Rupak Barua, Group CEO, AMRI
Hospitals Ltd.

42 | | 43
To reach the next level, the Indian healthcare industry needs to make a shift in response Customer is the culture
to customer needs and expectations. These expectations are dynamic, ever-changing,
Another important factor that needs to be
and amorphous. They are formed not just by the healthcare industry, but also by other
considered when devising strategies for the
non-related industries. Customer experience is a journey, of which patient experience
customers is the culture. No management strategy
is only one part. Just curing the patient will not build exceptional customer experience,
or model can become a success if we ignore
we need to add all the touch points that provide an experience and result in a satisfied
culture as a variable in a country like India. Indian
journey. Its a comprehensive philosophy.
customers are specifically different. Their cultural
sentiments must be taken into consideration to
Customers these days are very smart and have a lot of information at their disposal.
provide customer delight. Business and culture
They can easily analyze the gap between expectations and delivery. There are
cannot be separated. For instance, Indian customers Rupak Barua
disruptions happening all around in the industry, we need to bring all of it together,
are used to a large power distance between a doctor We need to satisfy the customer
and then analyze it as a whole. The gap between what we promise to deliver versus what in terms of their experience at the
and a patient. Therefore, a service add-on like
we deliver needs to be reduced to a point where we can say that we are delivering more hospital, not just the experience
having a doctor call upon the patient post-treatment
than what customers are expecting; this will lead to consumer delight. he has as a patient but the overall
may not be perceived in a positive light by the experience. Hospitals need to
customer. make a shift that would be in
Understanding the needs of the changing consumer Another cultural shift that needs to be considered
response to customer needs and
expectation.
Nowadays, customers are making choices of hospitals beyond is the changing mindset of the younger generation.
doctors. Social media and their own social network have given For instance, years back, people would not spend
leverage to patients to share their feedback. So, as service much towards healthcare on a person above the
providers we need to be innovative and responsive in order to age of 60 but now patients who are 80 or above are
build a reputation in the market to attract customers. being regularly brought in for treatment by their
families.
A patient coming to the hospital carries not just the disease,
but a pool of problems like anxiety, financial distress, What we need to do is to foresee: what the
insecurity and family issues. We need to be responsive to consumers will require, and then devise strategies to
the patient keeping all these factors in mind. A healthcare convert that into an enterprise.
service provider need not be everything to everybody, but
just deliver the best in whatever you provide. Connecting to Evolving role of the stakeholders
the customers psyche is important. So, the services should be There are three major stakeholders in the healthcare
aggregated and then delivered to meet the expectations of the industry. First are the clinicians, second, the ground
patient and their families. Santosh Desai
level managers, and last the CEOs or the senior
It is extremely important
to consider culture as a managers. These three stakeholders need to align to
Indian consumers (patients) have become more
dominating variable in the build a successful patient journey. The role of each of
knowledgeable and have more information at their disposal. healthcare model. Indian these stakeholders becomes equally important to reach
Hence, few aspects of healthcare like self-monitoring, pre- customers are used to a large a common goal.
diagnosis, and proper use of services can be handled by the power distance between a Dr. Naresh Trehan
consumers. But its too early-be it in terms of technology or doctor and a patient. Service
In the healthcare industry, the point of interaction In the Indian healthcare industry,
mindset of the customers-to say whether or not they want to providers need to develop there are huge gaps which need
strategies keeping this and with customers is limited and narrow. This means
manage things on their own. The journey has just begun and it to be filled in by the enablers.
other cultural barriers in that a service provider just sells what he wants to sell, Somehow, we have not been able
holds lot of possibilities in the future. mind. disregarding whether the customer wants to buy it or to bring in these enablers to fill in
not. these gaps in our delivery model.
44 | | 45
This narrow interaction leads to a narrower understanding between the two parties. The realization that if we live together, we will survive
You need to be able to sense the anxieties of the people and respond to them. Some together, will make a big difference. We have been
of these anxieties are deep-rooted and difficult to articulate, but easier to sense. talking about telemedicine, but the enablers were not
This stems from an understanding of peoples entire lives, which goes beyond the there. Now we have extensive broadband and mobile
understanding of diseases or hospitals. You need to fit together pieces, changes that data support, so this can change. We can make a big
are happening in their lives, around them, how they think about themselves, what difference by simply looking at how we can leverage
are the larger anxieties that they face, how they respond to the media today, etc. current technology to expand the capacity that we have
Understanding these will help us sense what is the next big thing; the next big shift. built. So that the usage of capacity will become better
and hence, more economical. An example of which is
We need to create congruence between the objectives of the patient and that of the use of video consulting.
the hospital. There is a real gap here. Indian customers want higher services at
reduced costs and in the shortest possible time. So, even if a hospital provides care Aim for customer satisfaction
at one tenth of the cost in other countries, it will still be high for the majority of the A patient in the healthcare industry is on a continuum, We need to satisfy the customer in terms
citizens of our country. These gaps can be filled in by the enablers. But somehow, we its not transactional. A patients thoughts while of their experience in the hospital, not just
have not been able to bring in these enablers to fill the gaps in our delivery model. leaving the hospital are: the disease is cured, I have a the patient experience but of an overall
India is very dynamic and thus, we need to create our own hybrid models, keeping prescription, and I am certain that I will not enter the consumer experience. Hospitals need to
in mind the expectations of our customers. hospital again because of the same problem. So, the make a shift that would be in response
point is how do you maintain connections with the to the customers needs and expectation.
Collaboration is the key patient going out of your hospital. The patients should This will help us reach the next level.
feel connected and should be comfortable to come back Customer satisfaction must become an
The healthcare industry should think of walking together and
to seek advice or care. If you can achieve this then you all-encompassing and comprehensive
helping each of the stakeholders. They should come together and
have won half the battle. philosophy.
try to build models to fill the gaps. It does not matter whether
the leader is from within the industry or outside. It actually may
be an advantage if you are an outsider, because when its your
own stream, you are so deep into it, that you may not notice the
gap. What we need is to have people who can sense the gap and
respond to customers expectations.
Meena Ganesh
Its better if you focus on your core area of expertise and Whats possible for someone
aggregate equal quality partners to deliver the other expectations from outside the industry is to
of patients and their families. But the problem is that we within be able to see some of the things
the healthcare industry have not realized the value of working that have been taken for granted
together. We need to really re-align our thinking. It has happened by the industry and see the gaps
much more clearly. Also, you can
in other sectors, where people have understood their challenges compare it to whats happening
and have come together to overcome them. For instance, you in other sectors and bring in
have a telecom tower, it is owned by 5 companies and used by disruptions.
20 companies. The maturing of the healthcare industry has not
happened yet.

46 | | 47
Contact Information:

Prof. Piyush Kumar Sinha,


Professor in Retailing and Marketing,
Wing 10, IIMA
Ahmedabad - 380015, India
Phone: +91 98250 70891
Email: pksinha@iima.ac.in

The Core Team:

Aakanksha Sinha, IIMA


Kopal Agrawal Dhandhania, IIMA
Farheen Jamal, Abbott
Jyotishman Boruah, Abbott
Kunal Kanera, Abbott
Minali Shah, Abbott
Prerna Prajapati, Abbott
Rohit Ardeshana, Abbott
Samprita Sinha, Abbott
Sonali Padwal, Abbott

Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this are personal of speakers and authors.
IIMA and Abbott are not responsible for the same.

48 |
www.abbott.in

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