rural areas – first , the poor penetration of PHCs and CHCs but , more importantly , the decrepit state of operation in existing PHCs and CHCs . Many rural PHCs suffer from absenteeism of doctors and nurses , poor supply of drugs as well as poor infrastructure . PPP is potentially an option to address the current situation but then the terms and conditions of the PPP have to be such that private operators can run economically viable models . Other areas of healthcare , for example , diagnostics , are seeing evolving models of PPP where private operators are participating and often establishing economically viable models . There are learnings from such examples that have to be replicated in primary healthcare .
How do you look at the overall healthcare situation in India ? Is India catching up on the rising healthcare requirements ?
The overall healthcare situation in India can be summarized as follows – skew in beds supply leading to over-supply situations in top town tiers leaving large unaddressed markets in lower tier towns , scarcity of quality supply , professionals and clinicians leading to a rapid increase in healthcare inflation , a broken preventive healthcare system leading to burgeoning of the disease burden for the hospitals , private players beginning to innovate on cost-effective hospital delivery models for priceconscious market segments in lower town tiers , rapid rise in government and private insurance but focusing principally on hospitalizations and not on prevention and outcomes , growing maturity of select single specialty models and continuing investor interest in select healthcare segments with proven high-ROCE models .
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India is still far from bridging the demandsupply gap for large segments of the economically under-privileged population – a reality underscored by the high evidence of drainage of rural or semi-urban patient population into urban health clusters like the NCR or Hyderabad even to address basic healthcare needs .
In a nutshell though , India is still far from bridging the demandsupply gap for large segments of the economically under-privileged population – a reality underscored by the high evidence of drainage of rural or semi-urban patient population into urban health clusters like the NCR or Hyderabad even to address basic healthcare needs . This gap is not likely to be addressed anytime soon with only the proliferation of hospitals but will need maturity and growth in primary care as well as of insurance-driven payment mode .
What are the challenges before corporate hospitals that need to be addressed ?
Challenges for corporate hospitals exist at many levels . The core issue is that of economic viability and scalability . Unit level viability in top metros or town tiers is affected by increased private competitive intensity in such geographies coupled with rapid inflation in compensation of doctors and other operational costs in such clusters . Economic viability in smaller towns is affected by price sensitivity in such towns and competition offered by the unorganized segment . Scalability of healthcare models is constrained , amongst other things , by the lack of healthcare talent – doctors , nurses , allied health professionals and management professionals . In the context of such challenges , corporate hospitals need to graduate from an approach of managing operations by experience and intuition to managing performance with a scientific , professional approach . The next few years are likely to see the true ‘ professionalization ’ of the management approach in corporate hospitals .
What are the ways by which performance of hospitals could be improved ? Is it really possible for them to provide quality healthcare yet being accessible to cross sections of society ?
Quality healthcare need not be equated with fancy buildings and infrastructure – ‘ quality ’ in healthcare concerns itself more with outcomes and patient experience . That said , corporate hospitals can work out delivery models that drive superior outcomes at economical costs .
Performance improvement in hospitals would require healthcare operators to work on a variety of issues that are directly or indirectly linked to revenue enhancement , cost optimization and working capital management . The A & M report lays down a framework that can enable hospitals to systematically identify and address some of these issues . However , improved performance in hospitals would be an outcome of not only working on these microinitiatives but also effecting an overhaul in outlook and management approach – graduating to a culture that embraces analyticsdriven decision-making , customizes offerings to fit market requirements and leverages technology in patient engagement and digital outreach .
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