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Hospital marketing comes of age
EHM Team - Mumbai/New Delhi/Chennai
Buoyed by corporatisation of healthcare, India’s promotion as a sought
after medical tourism destination and threatened by the mushrooming of new hospitals,
it is becoming difficult for hospitals these days to depend on mere word of
mouth promotion to attract patients. Hospital managements are putting extra
effort in carving a brand image of the hospital and improving hospital’s
visibility. In other words, many would agree, that hospitals marketing has evolved
from being subtle to aggressive.
Hospital marketing as a concept
According to Ashok Anantram, president, business development, Apollo Hospitals,
Chennai, “Marketing as a concept is the same in product and service industry.
There is a product or service - one section produces it and the other consumes
it. Marketing is an interplay between producers and consumers.” However,
the difference comes in marketing tangible and intangible products. While products
that can be seen, felt, touched and tasted are tangible, the products that are
based on post-sale experience is intangible.
Consumers can come up with desirable parameters for a tangible product in terms
of productivity, efficiency, etc. It is very difficult to rate an intangible
product, he explains.
Experts opine that healthcare marketing is a complex equation because most often
the producer, that is, the doctor, himself is the marketer. Since the production
and consumption takes place simultaneously, as in the case of performing an
operation, he or she should ensure zero-error delivery each time and every time.
There is no physical or time gap between the production and consumption.
Marketing department
With the realisation of importance of hospital marketing, the presence of a
full-fledged marketing department has also been acknowledged. “The marketing
department is said to be the voice of hospital where the brand is fashioned
and communicated, internally as well as to the community at large,” says
Anne Marie Moncure, managing director, Indraprastha Apollo, New Delhi.
According to Dr Mitul Thakkar, senior manager, marketing, Asian Heart Institute
and Research Centre (AHIRC), “Since a hospital makes a lot of investments
in setting up the infrastructure and offering its services, selling the services
of a hospital needs a proper system. Therefore, the role of the marketing department
in our hospital is of paramount importance. Apart from helping to create a brand
image for the healthcare institution, the department acts as an interface between
the doctor and the public.” Agrees Urmila Nabar, marketing manager, Nanavati
Hospital, Mumbai, “We provide the liaison between the doctors and the public.”
The marketing department has assumed more importance after the boost in medical
tourism, opines Colonel B S Khimani, director, administration, Jaslok Hospital.
The marketing department liaisons with the medical officers of the foreign consulates
to bring patients from abroad. “FICCI is helping hospitals to utilise the
potential of medical tourism. Jaslok hospital has recently tied-up with FICCI
to utilise the potential of this upcoming sector,” informed an official
from Jaslok Hospital.
The success of the marketing department depends on its association with various
other departments. “Organisational excellence is very important than the
departmental excellence. The front end cannot perform its duties without the
backing of the quality of back end operations,” says Anantram.
Marketing strategies
Though there are no specific strategies for hospital marketing, a systematic
approach to marketing has evolved over the past few years. “Unlike earlier,
now the corporates prefer a long-term association with the healthcare institution
by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU),” says Deepika Gupta, marketing
executive, S L Raheja Hospital, Mumbai. Marketing experts believe that a sound
Client Relationship Management (CRM) forms the basis for soliciting corporate
tie-ups, today.
Events, both indoor and out-reach programmes, play a significant role in marketing
of healthcare institutions. Continuous medical education, awareness sessions
for general public, check-up camps for public, organising events on various
health days, conducting interviews of specialists on visual media, informative
and interactive website, printing and making readily available various emergency
or appointment numbers are the commonest marketing tools.
According to Dr K S Bhimwal, medical director, Rockland hospital, with the surge
in concern in health check ups, hospitals have fashioned various types of special
health check up packages catering to executives, pregnant women, servants, shop
keepers to slum dwellers.“Recently, we celebrated Liver Day at Apollo,
which was aimed at educating and creating awareness amongst children and parents,
so we organised a fashion show and health quiz, which generated a lot of interest,”
says Moncure.
Though hospitals are publicising through advertisements, according to Dr Saumitra
Bharadwaj, marketing manager at Fortis hospital, NOIDA, hospitals should create
goodwill for themselves and should not completely rely on advertisements.
“As patients are the best ambassadors, it is important to take care of
their needs and provide them with best possible care. Their apprehensions should
be addressed so that they have the courage to come back to the same facility,”
he adds. Agrees Anantram, “In this business, every satisfied customer brings
thousand new customers.”
Future
Would hospital marketing become more aggressive in the future? “We can
no longer rely on word of mouth for getting patients. Hospitals, mainly the
corporates ones, would definitely get more aggressive to survive the intense
competition,” avers Juhi Bhandari, marketing manager, Hinduja Hospital.
However, Nabar disagrees, saying, “Aggressive marketing is not necessary
in healthcare sector as it would not fetch more patients. Patients’s decision
to choose a hospital is based on three factors: facilities available in the
hospital, expertise of doctors and vicinity.”
Will new marketing mantras emerge in the future? The answer lies in the thought
process of the new faces in this sector. According to Manish Sharma, management
trainee, Hinduja Hospital, “As in the West, in future, tertiary care Indian
hospitals need to conduct research so as to segmentise the market and tap that
area from which patients are not turning up.” For instance, if research
shows that a hospital is not attracting enough patients from a particular age
group or a disease profile, it needs to strategise to get those patients.”
| Fortis, Noida
Fortis was the first hospital
to organise an exhibition in the National Capital Region, wherein the
general public could visit all departments of the hospital and get answers
from experts. Secondly, Fortis launched a dialysis technician programme
for women from the weaker section of society in which they were given
free training by the hospital and they will be assimilated in the hospital
itself.
Apart from organsing CMEs
almost every week, camps, there’s a special OPD where consultants
charge Rs 100 only. Internally, we have patient co-ordinators, counsellors,
ward in-charge etc to take care of all need of patients. There’s
also a system of taking feedback from patients and visitors.
Dr Saumitra Bharadwaj,
marketing manager, Fortis hospital, Noida
The marketing strategy of
Jaslok Hospital involves tying up with corporates, some of them being
Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), Mumbai Port Trust (MBT), Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Air India. One of the most effective
marketing tool is a web site (www.jaslokhospital.net), which is constantly
updated by our technical staff. Other marketing strategies involve that
the hospital conducts free health check-ups like diabetes and cardiac
check ups for the general public, inviting foreign faculty and holding
joint symposiums with the foreign delegates to share their skills, knowledge
and experience. The hospital has a tie up with Stanford University Medical
Centre, US and we hold video conferencing every month with the doctors
of the centre, who interact with the faculty of our hospital.
Dr J P Sharma, medical
superindentent, Jaslok Hospital
All marketing endeavours
at Apollo are based on strict ethics, code of conduct and corporate social
responsibility. We understand that the consumer is the best judge of the
quality of our products and to that extent we have to be humble when we
talk about our excellence in healthcare.
I cannot advertise that
we have the best doctors. It will be against the code of conduct. Though
we have a marketing budget and programmes, they do not appear same as
that of the one that traditional product or service sectors have. When
the consumer wants a medical product or service, referring doctors and
the circle of friends and relatives influence the consumer’s decision.
To reach our message to
each of these two divisions, we take different approaches. We interact
with doctors on one on one basis. We regularly conduct seminars and continual
education programmes to explain to doctors the advances in the medical
sciences and the infrastructure that our hospital has.
To reach the consumers,
we rely mostly on public relations. Whenever our doctors perform pioneering
surgeries or winning awards for their achievements, we talk to the media
and when people come to know about our achievements they get confidence
to go for our services.
We regularly present various
health programmes to the corporates who form a significant chunk of our
customer base. Being a hospital chain, we have the advantage of leveraging
our brand.
Ashok Anantram, president-business
development, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai
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Compiled by Rita Dutta, Mumbai; Shardul Nautiyal, Mumbai; Sapna Dogra, New
Delhi & G Sanakaranarayanan, Chennai
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