The Dilemma of Single Speciality Hospitals

A recent cover story in Business World highlights the growing influence of Single Speciality Hospitals (SSH) in India. I read the story carefully. First and foremost, I was delighted to see a cover on healthcare in Business World. It is not often that the business of healthcare gets prominence in a widely circulated and highly respected business weekly. That, BW decided to do this story is a testimony to the growing importance of the private healthcare sector, which is something to cheer about.

SSH’s make good business sense at least in some specialities. The investment required is low compared to a large Multi Speciality Hospital (MSH), funds can be accessed through PE firms and financial institutions, the hospital can be set up quickly and if one ropes in a well known medical luminary of that particular field, it is not too difficult to fill up the beds. Once the operations stabilise, one can consider franchising or expanding by setting up super specialised centres in large multi speciality hospitals. Specialities like Ophthalmology, Dentistry, Obs and Gynaecology (remember the neighbourhood mother and child centre) have always had Single Speciality Hospitals and clinics.  The trend is now towards large SSH for Oncology, Urology and even Day Care Surgeries.  

Wither New Hospitals???

The other day I was with a friend who works for a hospital in New Delhi. While we chatted, he casually mentioned that the expansion plans of the hospital chain he worked for have been put on hold. This reminded me of another former colleague of mine who had had a particularly hard time with fickle minded healthcare companies, who will hire him as their director of new projects and he will sit idle twiddling his thumbs for many months as the new projects would just not materialise. Unbelievably, this happened with him twice and each time he had to relocate to a new city with wife and family in tow!

Rewind to almost two years ago.  Some of the biggest corporate houses in the country were keen on investing in healthcare in the country. The feuding Ambani brothers of the Reliance were all set to commence their big healthcare play. Both of them had announced mega plans with billions of dollars of investments. Anil Ambani was reported to be in talks with Analjit Singh for a majority stake in Max Healthcare. The Economic Times ran a story about the proposed deal adding a certain legitimacy to the rumours . While, Mr. Singh kept strenuously denying the reports the rumours would just not go away. Fortis, the healthcare major controlled by Mr. Singh’s nephews (Shivinder and Malvinder Mohan Singh of the Ranbaxy fame) had announced a joint venture with DLF, India’s largest real estate firm. They were reported to be planning to set up hospitals across the country with an investment of USD 1.5 bn.  

Healthcare Advertising on Radio

Now that I work for a radio station I have been applying some time figuring out the feasibility of healthcare advertisements on Radio Stations.  In India the private FM radio stations are only allowed to play music and things like News, Sports, General Entertainment are not allowed. Most stations thus offer a mix of music interspersed with Jock Talk, audience bites, station sweepers, contest promos and of course advertising.    

Around the World For a Cure – The Big Opportunity in Medical Travel

Medical Tourism is a much reviled word, in many ways an oxymoron. Tourism is all about holidays to be enjoyed with family and friends, while ‘medical’ connotes ill health, hardly conducive to travel. Maybe Medical Travel might be a more appropriate word.That as it may, medical tourism has gained wide currency and captured the world’s attention.

It is viewed as the next big opportunity for countries like Thailand, Malaysia, India, Singapore in Asia and Costa Rica, Panama, The Bahamas and Peru in Latin America.

The reasons for Medical Travel are not difficult to understand.

People travel in search of good quality medical care. In the past business tycoons, politicians with ill gotten wealth, businessmen, aging filmstars and shaikhs from the Middle East would typically travel to foreign shores seeking high quality medical care. Most of them traveled from the lesser developed countries like Middle East, India and Latin America. The destination usually was the United States.  

On the Back of a Star

The star syndrome is a common phenomenon, which dazzles many a newly minted hospital.

I have been part of several start-up hospitals and have attended numerous meetings where all those who matter spout the now so familiar arguements about staying away from the ’stars’ in the medical firmament. The arguements run something like this.

The star doctor (a well established doctor with a roaring practice) will be too set in his practices, will bring too much baggage and will never follow our pristine processes, which are far superior to his current practices. He will be a bad influence on everybody else. Another arguement goes that we do not believe in the ’star’ system. Why should a ’star’ enjoy priviliges, which are not available to our other doctors. A third arguement goes that we believe in growing our own stars. The hospital brand should be the real star and not individual doctors.