a quarterly report by - Technopak

perspective
a quar terly repor t by
Volume 02 / 2009
| Volume 02
•gains
are defined in terms of customer relationship, is of great significance here with service being the
key differentiator.
•Medical
Tourism: Today healthcare has become global. India has a growing number of international
patients and more and more hospitals are rushing to upgrade their services, infrastructure and most of
all their technologies. The service they provide and the follow- up, all contribute to a growing number of
patients returning for new treatments.
As depicted in Exhibit 7, even if CRM
fills 50% of its cancelled appointments
i.e. 30 appointments, it is equal to
US$ 93,750 in savings.CRM program
also promotes optimal utilization of
the deployed resources.
•Savings
in mass advertising and marketing: The promotional efforts of hospitals have now changed
directions. One of the major changes has been the central position given to the patients. Also from
unfocussed widespread media targeting the approach is now more specific.
A new method making use of database marketing is proving to be very profitable and insightful wherein
a specific customer is targeted for advertising on the basis of previous consumption and usage trends. A
comprehensive database of all present customers, possible suspects and prospects is maintained. This
method gives direction, flow and individualism to marketing which in turn results in huge cost savings
and increased footfalls as the mode and message of advertising for women in child bearing age group is
drastically different from, say, a sixty- year- old retired man.
Some Industry Illustrations
Perhaps the most important application of CRM is in disease prevention. It has been estimated that if
patients are recommended preventive health check- ups on the basis of their past medical history, 90% of
them are likely to come in for a check-up.
Tenet Healthcare Corporation (hospital chain in the United States)
analyzed their US$ 60 Mn marketing expenditure for a particular
division and realized that they were spending 75% of it on nondirectional
media advertising.
Although CRM has been adopted by numerous industries across India to yield dramatic results, the
Healthcare sector is yet to realise its full potential and use it as a powerful tool to aid patient retention.
45 | Building Operational Efficiency in Healthcare Delivery
Exhibit 7
Number of appointments / day 400*
Total number of working days 300
Average consultation charge ~ US$ 10 (INR 500)
No- shows 15 % = (60).
Revenue lost =60 app * 300 working days *
US$ 10 (INR 500)
= US$ 0.18 Mn (INR 9 Mn)
* For a 200 bedded Specialty hospital
Customer Potential Management Corp. (CPM), a healthcare marketing firm,
uses Neural Network Technology (an artificial intelligence tool) to sort
prospects by service line, e.g. cardiology, oncology. They also use several
insightful indices such as Consumer Healthcare Utilization Index (CHUI) and
Patient Disease Index (PDI) which help them to identify which customer is most
likely to need which service and when.