For a Hospital 'Doing Good' is Great

'The business of Healthcare allows you to do good, and maybe also make money', Analjit Singh, Chairman of Max Healthcare, once said this in my presence and since then I have never stopped wondering about how 'doing good' is just as much a part of healthcare business as is making money.

If one was to stop and ponder for a minute, one would realise that healthcare business allows one to do good from the day one starts a hospital, while the making of money takes time, sweat, blood and tears. 'Doing Good' to my mind is the soul of this business and anyone, who does not have this objective at the back of his mind may as well never get into this business. For as Mr. Singh would say 'there are dozens of easier ways of making money, if that alone is the objective'.  

Before, I proceed further, let me hasten to add that I believe that the twin objectives of 'doing good' and profits are both equally important. Profit in my lexicon is not a dirty word at all. No business would remain a business if it was to steer clear from profits. However, to rush towards achieving the profits goal at the exclusion of everything else is foolhardy.

While working in hospitals one comes face to face with desperate people needing urgent medical care, which is beyond their means, accident victims arriving in the Emergency unable to pay for their treatment, children from disadvantaged sections of the society requiring complex surgery. For a 'for profit' hospital the dilemma is acute. They have a responsibility towards the share holders, which means free treatment can not be offered (certainly not beyond a point). However, being part of the community turning away people, for want of money is difficult for most doctors. Often ways and means are found to accommodate patients. Doctors, waive off their professional fee, ask medical devices manufacturers to donate expensive devices, hospitals waive off room rent and charge only for medicines consumed. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been part of hospitals, where we would do all of this and more to ensure that as far as as possible we did not turn away someone truly deserving of help and support at a difficult time.

I know of many doctors who run programs, (supported by the hospitals they work in), which allows them to treat the poor. Dr, Anil Bhan a well known cardiac surgeon works with destitute children from the hills in Uttarakhand. His program is truly remarkable as he has found an anonymous benefactor, who pays for medicines and consumables, while Dr. Bhan does not charge any professional fee for the surgeries and the hospital waives off the OR fee and the room rents. Dr. Harsha Hegde an Orthopaedic Surgeon, works with an NGO in Gurgaon, which takes care of street children. I am sure there would be many more conscientious doctors doing the best they can to help individuals seeking their help. 

Apart from these unorganised efforts, which are but a drop in the ocean, I wish there was an organised program to help the not so well off access quality healthcare. A simple solution that guards the stakeholders interests as well as allows the hospitals to do good is to set up an NGO, partly capitalised by the hospital, partly through corporate and individual donations and partly maybe by government agencies. This NGO can then refer deserving cases to tertiary care hospitals, which can provide medical care and charge the NGO a much reduced sum equal to the cost of consumables and medicines for its services. 

Like I mentioned earlier 'doing good' to the society must be an irrevocable contract that a hospital must have with the community it works in. Unlike other industries say a cola manufacturer or a car company, hospitals have a completely different set of responsibilities towards the society at large. 

And finally, 'Doing Good' makes great business sense as well. A hospital known for its large heart and generous spirit will always attract patients.

Service Recovery and Word of Mouth Hospital Marketing

Goof ups in hospitals are always round the corner.

I dare suggest that quite often they are unavoidable. Do what you may, there will always be someone who will slip once in a while and you will have an irate customer. The headcount in a typical 300 bed tertiary care hospital in India can easily be 800 people or more. In spite of all the care in hiring the right set of people and putting them through rigorous training, they will still end up making mistakes.

Good hospitals, while trying to minimise errors also learn to accept them as inevitable and put in place systems, that help them handle difficult situations well. Great hospitals go one step further, they not only do excellent service recovery, they also ensure that the the patients leave the hospital with a positive frame of mind, in spite of the mishap.  

F&B and Billing are two areas in a hospital, where service failures are most common. The food would not arrive on time, would either be too cold or too hot, or too spicy or just unpalatable. Similarly the bill will take ages to get ready, it will have items billed, which in the patient's estimation were never used, there will be charges for doctor's visits, who never showed up or just came and said hello, while the hospital levied a big charge. All this and more are common in the hospitals. Too many such episodes, with a patient will lead to a bad experience and even if the medical outcome is fine the patient will (in all likelihood) have bad things to say about the hospital.

It is essential that the hospital actively seek patients' views on its services. While, a feedback form is usually available at the time of the discharge, it is of no use in service recovery.(The patient is afterall ready to leave the hospital).

Max Healthcare, thus employed a novel system called 'The Mentor Program' to collect patient feedback through designated executives called 'Mentors', while the patients were admitted in the hospital. The mentors meet the patients and their attendants on a daily basis and listen to their grievances and experiences in the hospital. They than pass on the feedback to the concerned departments (say F&B), which than takes care that the error was not repeated. The mentors check with the patients again the next day if all was fine and usually have a happy patient at hand.

I myself experienced the Mentor system at work, when my mother underwent a bypass surgery last year. She had complications and we spent a harrowing 3 weeks in the hospital. However, the mentor made our life easier by taking care of the smallest need that we had (even allowing us to break hospital rules at times). We got an impression that the hospital was willing to listen to us, really cared about us and was a partner in a difficult period in our lives. 

And look here I am talking about the our experience in the hospital rather than the infection, which my mother contracted after surgery leading to complications. I understand this can happen in any hospital across the world, the infection rate at Max compares favourably with other hospitals and we were just plain unlucky.

This is the power of a good experience and word of mouth marketing. A good customer experience and a positive word of mouth is never a product of an accident. It is only through a great understanding of consumer behaviour in a hospital, detailed planning and diligent effort, that magic happens.