Healthcare
Last Updated: October-December 2008
India's rapid growth has brought about a 'health transition' in terms of shifting demographics, socio-economic transformations and changes in disease patterns.
Healthcare, which is a US$ 35 billion industry in India, is expected to reach over US$ 75 billion by 2012 and US$ 150 billion by 2017 according to Technopak Advisors in their report 'India Healthcare Trends 2008'.
Moreover, as per a PricewaterhouseCoopers study 'Healthcare in India: Emerging market report 2007', the revenues from the healthcare sector account for 5.2 per cent of the GDP, making it the third largest growth segment in India.
The sector's growth will be driven by the country's growing middle class, which can afford quality healthcare. Over 150 million Indians have annual incomes of more than US$ 1,000, and many who work in the business services sector earn as much as US$ 20,000 a year. If the economy continues to grow at its current rate and the literacy rate keeps rising, much of western and southern India will be middle class by 2020.
To meet this growing demand, the country needs US$ 50 billion annually for the next 20 years, says a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) study. India needs to add 2 million beds to the existing 1.1 million by 2027, and requires immediate investments of US$ 82 billion as per the Technopak Advisors report.
Health insurance
Currently only 10 per cent of the Indian population has health insurance, which means that there is tremendous scope for growth in this area. The Indian health insurance business is growing at 50 per cent. The sector is projected to grow to US$ 5.75 billion by 2010, according to a study by the New Delhi-based PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
According to a report by McKinsey on the Indian pharmaceutical and healthcare sector, one-fifth of India's population is likely to have medical insurance by 2015, leading to an estimated increase in consumer spending on healthcare from US$ 2,054 per household in 2005 to US$ 3,514 per household by 2015.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has eliminated tariffs on general insurance as of January 1, 2007. This move is expected to drive additional growth of private insurance products.
Healthcare and IT
Hospitals have realised that information technology (IT) can be an effective tool towards efficient systems. According to a report by Springboard Research, India has the fastest growing healthcare IT market in Asia, with an expected growth rate of 22 per cent, followed closely by China and Vietnam. In fact, the Indian healthcare technology market is poised to be worth more than US$ 254 million by 2012.
Medical Tourism
'First World treatment' at Third World prices' is how industry sources define medical tourism in India. Although India is a recent entrant into medical tourism, it is fast catching up. According to a study by McKinsey and the CII, medical tourism in India could become a US$ 2 billion industry by 2012 (from US$ 350 million in 2006). Credit Suisse estimates medical tourism to be growing at between 25-30 per cent annually.
However, the current market for medical tourism in India is mainly limited to patients from the Middle East and South Asian economies. Indian hospitals are now trying to attract patients from Afro-Asian countries. Afro-Asian people spend as much as US$ 20 billion a year on health care outside their countries - Nigerians alone spend an estimated US$ 1 billion a year. Most of this money is spent in Europe and America, but it is hoped that this would now be increasingly directed to India.
The key selling points of the medical tourism industry are its cost effectiveness and its combination with the attractions of tourism. Many travel agents are now selling combined packages of treatment and vacation. The cost differential across the board is huge: only a tenth and sometimes even a sixteenth of the cost in the West.
Besides world class medical facilities, India is also trying to promote its traditional medicine. For instance, Kerala Ayurveda centres have been established at multiple locations in various metro cities, thus highlighting the advantages of Ayurveda in health management. The health tourism focus has seen Kerala participate in various trade shows and expos wherein the advantages of this traditional form of medicine are showcased.
Beyond cost advantage
However, the Indian healthcare story is not about cost advantage only. It has a high success rate and a growing credibility.
Indian specialists have performed over 500,000 major surgeries and over a million other surgical procedures including cardio-thoracic, neurological and cancer surgeries, with success rates at par with international standards.
The success rate of cardiac bypass in India is 98.7 per cent against 97.5 per cent in the U.S.
India's success in 110 bone marrow transplants is 80 per cent.
The success rate in 6,000 renal transplants is 95 per cent.
The Government has also been proactive in encouraging prospects in this sector with a number of initiatives:
A new category of visa 'Medical Visa' ('M'-Visa) has been introduced which can be given for a specific purpose to foreign tourists coming into India.
Guidelines have been formulated by Department of AYUSH prescribing minimum requirements for Ayurveda and Panchkarma Centres.
Areas of Opportunity
The fast growth in the Indian healthcare sector has created various pockets of opportunities for investors. A recent FICCI-Ernst and Young (E&Y) report titled 'Opportunities in Healthcare "Destination India" highlights several such areas within the healthcare sector.
Medical infrastructure forms the largest portion of the healthcare pie, and according to the report, the bed per thousand population ratio for India in 2006 stood at 1.03 as against an average 4.3 of comparable countries (like China, Korea and Thailand). The report points out that India is likely to reach a bed to thousand population ratio of 1.85 and, in a best case scenario, a ratio of 2 by 2012. Beds in excess of 1 million need to be added to reach a ratio of 1.85 per thousand at an investment of US$ 77.9 billion.
Another area of opportunity is medical equipment. Currently the medical equipment industry is around US$ 2.17 billion and is growing at 15 per cent per year. It is estimated to reach US$ 4.97 billion by 2012. Since almost 65 per cent of the medical equipment is imported, it is a key area for forging partnerships across borders. In addition to this, engineering excellence, cost-effective labour, increasing emphasis on intellectual property rights and most importantly a fast growing domestic market makes India an ideal manufacturing base. This opportunity has attracted foreign medical equipment makers to float Indian subsidiaries -- 30 of them received import clearances in 2007 alone.
The growth in medical infrastructure will be complimented by a demand for associated products and services, for example, the medical textiles industry which is projected to double to reach US$ 753 million by 2012.
The report further states that clinical trials have the potential to become a US$ 1 billion industry by 2010 and the health services outsourcing sector has the potential to grow to grow to US$ 7.4 billion by 2012, from US$ 3.7 billion in 2006, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11 per cent.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Healthcare career planning
Career Planning in Healthcare Management
by K.M.Vishnu Babu
WHERE ARE YOU?
After your post graduation, now your position is to search a place to find a good job. How are you going to find your right place?
To understand, you have to do lot of paper work in your home before you take decision.
The following elements will help you to access your next step clearly.
1. You have to sit in a calm place where your thinking and work should not be disturbed.
2. Do evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT analysis) with you. This will help you to find out where at present you are standing.
3. You have to take your strength area first and find out relevant jobs available in the Healthcare field.
At the same time, you should not for get to convert your weakness and Thread to convert into Strength and Opportunity.
To make these things possible, you may have to work hard and devote huge time to make these things possible.
WHAT IS MY NEXT STEP?
You know your strength after this analysis, now what is my next step?
How can I select my new job in an organization? As a Management Trainee or Supervisor or Manager or CEO?
These things will strike in your mind when you decided to take a post in your career.
As I said, it is totally depends on your capability and your knowledge. Most of the time, we have seen that IIM and reputed management school students are placed in higher position than any other institutions. Why?
If you see the most of the candidate from these institutions, they are already got work experience and proven knowledge in their field. So, they are successful.
Once again I am telling you that the success is always depends on your capability and most importantly the Certificate only not standing to retain the offered job, at the same time they are all executing their tasks with very good present mind and applying common sense to succeed.
So, I would like to add most import point is don’t do different things when you joined in a new job, prove yourself that you will do things different in your organistaion. Best of luck for your future career.
by K.M.Vishnu Babu
WHERE ARE YOU?
After your post graduation, now your position is to search a place to find a good job. How are you going to find your right place?
To understand, you have to do lot of paper work in your home before you take decision.
The following elements will help you to access your next step clearly.
1. You have to sit in a calm place where your thinking and work should not be disturbed.
2. Do evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT analysis) with you. This will help you to find out where at present you are standing.
3. You have to take your strength area first and find out relevant jobs available in the Healthcare field.
At the same time, you should not for get to convert your weakness and Thread to convert into Strength and Opportunity.
To make these things possible, you may have to work hard and devote huge time to make these things possible.
WHAT IS MY NEXT STEP?
You know your strength after this analysis, now what is my next step?
How can I select my new job in an organization? As a Management Trainee or Supervisor or Manager or CEO?
These things will strike in your mind when you decided to take a post in your career.
As I said, it is totally depends on your capability and your knowledge. Most of the time, we have seen that IIM and reputed management school students are placed in higher position than any other institutions. Why?
If you see the most of the candidate from these institutions, they are already got work experience and proven knowledge in their field. So, they are successful.
Once again I am telling you that the success is always depends on your capability and most importantly the Certificate only not standing to retain the offered job, at the same time they are all executing their tasks with very good present mind and applying common sense to succeed.
So, I would like to add most import point is don’t do different things when you joined in a new job, prove yourself that you will do things different in your organistaion. Best of luck for your future career.
Patient Management
Patient Care Management In Healthcare
Customising and regularising the available patient database helps in retaining relations with regular patients of the hospital, says KM Vishnu Babu
Patient care is an area, which needs atmost attention in the healthcare arena. This article would shed some light on how hospitals and other healthcare centres, by following some simple rules, can bracket their patients by providing them with top-class services.
Retaining Regular Patients In OPD
It is always better and more profitable to have regular patients than newly-generated ones. Regular patients always promote services through their word of mouth. To retain regular patients, there should be well-organised plan to maintain relations with them. This can be done through customising and regularising the available patient database and to get detailed information on OP, IP, CT scan, cosmetic surgery and superspecialty services of patients visit on weekly, monthly and yearly basis.
Their information and their e-mail address will help send the latest and updated information and message through e-mail at any convenient time. The messages could be classified as:
(a) Greetings during national / state festivals and local functions. (b) To greet patients at birthdays or marriage anniversaries.(c) To inform their follow-up date for their surgery. (d) Informing new updates in treatment / fee structure etc.
The above factors will help keep in touch with regular visiting patient and it would give a positive effect on the patient that there is 'feeling of care' towards their health.
Feedback Mechanism At OPD
An efficient feedback mechanism at the OPD will help understand patients' requirement in clinical and supportive services. This mechanism can be designed through placing visible suggestion registers / box, collecting information through well-designed questionnaire, by nominating active enumerator and forming Regular Patients Association (RPA) at the base hospital. A periodical meeting with RPA will gradually eliminate dissatisfaction among patients. At the same time, the feedback information will also help streamline working system according to latest requirements to serve better in this competitive environment.
Eliminating The Gaps
Normally, doctors are busy with their working schedules and surgeries. They may not be able to answer all queries raised by the patients, resulting in less communication. To eliminate such gaps and to increase the feeling of care to the patient, hospitals can create a 'feeling mechanism' — like recognising the patient from previous visit, enquiring on their family members, their health etc. Say for example, the doctor can note down health or personal problems of the patient's family at the corner of the medical record. He can recollect the information and enquire about that at the time of next visit. Such mechanism definitely helps.
Waiting Status Information
As a layman, if you enter in a hospital, what you will expect at first? You are registered at the OPD counter and now are waiting for the doctor's call. How long you have to wait? When you will be called? How many more steps and procedures you have to take? How long it will take to finish each procedure? Where is the ending point? Who will help to clear such doubts?
The question here is how can hospitals overcome such difficulties in the OPD counter? There are different ways which can be adopted to tackle such a situation, like keeping display boards showing how long the patient have to wait in each procedure, having direction signs at the OPD entrance etc, This can be showed through flow charts at the reception as shown in Chart I.
This chart may not be applicable in some hospitals' set up to meet patient requirement. For that, a minor study with your reception staff will help analyse patient flow, peak hour, doctors and technicians available etc, and after considering these factors, hospitals can design the flow.
Patient Counselling System
A satisfied patient will inform five people about the services; while an unsatisfied one will inform 10-15 people about poor service and inferior treatment. The unsatisfied patient will then begin to shop for the competitors. Thus, hospitals not only lose the unsatisfied patient to the competitor, but even worse, he will probably take many other potential clients with him/her. To overcome such difficulties, healthcare service providers should focus on strengthening communication systems. Patient counselling is one of the strongest tools that will help get satisfied patients and retain regular patients. It is always recommended to have separate patient counsellor for each specialty department to promote specialty service in the set-up. The following are the benefits that the hospitals will get, once they place a patient counsellor at the hospital:
1. Doubts on explanation given by doctors on patients’ their health and further treatment.
2. Review check-up date, treatment / surgery fee, admission details (for surgery patient).
3. Medication details, test / examination detail etc.
Alternatively, to keep in touch with the inpatients and to ensure their presence for surgery, communication can also be done by sending post cards (written reminder) periodically or by sending Short Message Service (SMS). In this way, hospitals can retain their regular patients and have healthy and better relations with them
Customising and regularising the available patient database helps in retaining relations with regular patients of the hospital, says KM Vishnu Babu
Patient care is an area, which needs atmost attention in the healthcare arena. This article would shed some light on how hospitals and other healthcare centres, by following some simple rules, can bracket their patients by providing them with top-class services.
Retaining Regular Patients In OPD
It is always better and more profitable to have regular patients than newly-generated ones. Regular patients always promote services through their word of mouth. To retain regular patients, there should be well-organised plan to maintain relations with them. This can be done through customising and regularising the available patient database and to get detailed information on OP, IP, CT scan, cosmetic surgery and superspecialty services of patients visit on weekly, monthly and yearly basis.
Their information and their e-mail address will help send the latest and updated information and message through e-mail at any convenient time. The messages could be classified as:
(a) Greetings during national / state festivals and local functions. (b) To greet patients at birthdays or marriage anniversaries.(c) To inform their follow-up date for their surgery. (d) Informing new updates in treatment / fee structure etc.
The above factors will help keep in touch with regular visiting patient and it would give a positive effect on the patient that there is 'feeling of care' towards their health.
Feedback Mechanism At OPD
An efficient feedback mechanism at the OPD will help understand patients' requirement in clinical and supportive services. This mechanism can be designed through placing visible suggestion registers / box, collecting information through well-designed questionnaire, by nominating active enumerator and forming Regular Patients Association (RPA) at the base hospital. A periodical meeting with RPA will gradually eliminate dissatisfaction among patients. At the same time, the feedback information will also help streamline working system according to latest requirements to serve better in this competitive environment.
Eliminating The Gaps
Normally, doctors are busy with their working schedules and surgeries. They may not be able to answer all queries raised by the patients, resulting in less communication. To eliminate such gaps and to increase the feeling of care to the patient, hospitals can create a 'feeling mechanism' — like recognising the patient from previous visit, enquiring on their family members, their health etc. Say for example, the doctor can note down health or personal problems of the patient's family at the corner of the medical record. He can recollect the information and enquire about that at the time of next visit. Such mechanism definitely helps.
Waiting Status Information
As a layman, if you enter in a hospital, what you will expect at first? You are registered at the OPD counter and now are waiting for the doctor's call. How long you have to wait? When you will be called? How many more steps and procedures you have to take? How long it will take to finish each procedure? Where is the ending point? Who will help to clear such doubts?
The question here is how can hospitals overcome such difficulties in the OPD counter? There are different ways which can be adopted to tackle such a situation, like keeping display boards showing how long the patient have to wait in each procedure, having direction signs at the OPD entrance etc, This can be showed through flow charts at the reception as shown in Chart I.
This chart may not be applicable in some hospitals' set up to meet patient requirement. For that, a minor study with your reception staff will help analyse patient flow, peak hour, doctors and technicians available etc, and after considering these factors, hospitals can design the flow.
Patient Counselling System
A satisfied patient will inform five people about the services; while an unsatisfied one will inform 10-15 people about poor service and inferior treatment. The unsatisfied patient will then begin to shop for the competitors. Thus, hospitals not only lose the unsatisfied patient to the competitor, but even worse, he will probably take many other potential clients with him/her. To overcome such difficulties, healthcare service providers should focus on strengthening communication systems. Patient counselling is one of the strongest tools that will help get satisfied patients and retain regular patients. It is always recommended to have separate patient counsellor for each specialty department to promote specialty service in the set-up. The following are the benefits that the hospitals will get, once they place a patient counsellor at the hospital:
1. Doubts on explanation given by doctors on patients’ their health and further treatment.
2. Review check-up date, treatment / surgery fee, admission details (for surgery patient).
3. Medication details, test / examination detail etc.
Alternatively, to keep in touch with the inpatients and to ensure their presence for surgery, communication can also be done by sending post cards (written reminder) periodically or by sending Short Message Service (SMS). In this way, hospitals can retain their regular patients and have healthy and better relations with them
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