The Service Encyclopedia Of Fortis Hospital

Introduction of Fortis Hospital

Fortis Healthcare Limited (FHL), one of India’s largest private healthcare companies with network of 22 hospitals and more than 2570 beds reports first time net profit of Rs 0.94 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2008. The total income for the same period stood at Rs 148.35 crore. The company also reported highest ever EBIDTA in any quarter of Rs 23.16 crore registering growth of 44% as compared to Rs 16.1 crore in the same period last fiscal. The two projects PSM (central purchase and supply management) and FOS (Fortis operating systems), implemented last year have resulted in improved operating margins of 16% as against 12% in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. The concentrated efforts of the company in controlling costs and improving efficiency also helped in reporting first ever net profit of Rs 0.94 crore for the group as against adjusted net loss of Rs 23.5 crore in corresponding quarter last fiscal. The group has drawn a blue print for technology up gradation at its various hospitals, with an estimated investment of Rs 40 Crore in the current financial year.

Fortis Healthcare flt. Lt. Rajan Dhall Hospital (FFLRDH), like every other Fortis hospital, is a manifestation of the founder’s vision of “creating a world-class integrated healthcare delivery system in India, entailing the finest medical skills combined with compassionate patient care”..

From the pursuit of this mission emanates a passion to excel. Located at South Delhi’s biggest residential complex-Vasant Kunj, Fortis Healthcare flt. Lt. Rajan Dhall Hospital, equipped with 200 beds and spread over an area of 1,50,000 sq. ft, brings a wealth of medical expertise with the finest talents amongst doctors, nurses etc. Health care service is the combination of tangible and intangible aspect with the intangible aspect dominating the tangible aspect. In fact it can be said to be completely intangible, in that, the services (consultancy) offered by the doctor are completely intangible. The tangible things could include the bed, the décor, etc. Efforts made by hospitals to tangibles the service offering would be discussed in details in the unique characteristics part of the report.

Having the industry’s most elaborate and exclusive Patient Care and Clinical Coordination teams stationed at each partner hospital, we provide you the smoothest and seamless care ever imagined.

The second mega hub hospital, in the Fortis Healthcare group, it caters to the special needs of patients and their families. The hospital has been designed and developed to deliver patient care with maximum ease warmth and effectiveness. Our commitment to patient welfare and providing quality healthcare is reflected in the unique design attributes of the hospital. We have allocation space far above the current Indian norm of 800-900 sq.ft/bed. This allows for flexibility to adapt and accommodate future trends of patient care.

In addition to the Super specialty services the hospital also offers quality tertiary care and treatment in 24 other specialties including:

Cardiac Sciences

Orthopaedics

Neuro Sciences

Oncology

Minimal Access Surgery

Obstetrics

INNOVATIONS IN FORTIS HOSPITAL

Auto check-in and check out

Specialty hospitals

Aromatherapy at Apollo.

Biventricular pacing.

Bone bank at AIIMS.

Hospital administration.

Medical records management.

Oxygen under pressure treatment at Apollo.

Waste management.

Telemedicine.

Virtual Hospitals

TECHNOLOGIES IN FORTIS HOSPITAL

Same day OPD

Online reports

Imaging/ MRI Scan

Key Hole Surgery

Medical transcription

Biotechnology

Nanotechnology

SST: Self checking Machines/ equipments

Objectives of Fortis hospital

The classification of Hospitals on the basis of objective, ownership, path and size.

On the basis of the OBJECTIVE there are three types:

Teaching cum research for developing medicines and promoting research to improve the quality of medical aid.

General hospital for treating general ailments.

Special hospitals for specialized services in one or few selected areas.

On the basis of the OWNERSHIP, there are four types:

Government hospital, which is owned, managed and controlled by government

Semi-government hospital, which is partially shared by the government.

Voluntary organizations also run hospitals.

Charitable trusts also run hospitals.

On the basis of PATH OF TREATMENT, there are:

Allopath which is the system promoted under the English system.

Ayurved, which is based on the Indian system where herbals are used for preparing medicines.

Unani

Homeopathic

Others

On the basis of the SIZE, there are:

Teaching hospitals – generally have 500 beds, which can be adjusted in tune with number of students.

District hospital – generally have 200 beds, which can be raised to 300 in contingencies.

Taluka hospital – generally have 50 beds that can be raised to 100 depending on the requirement.

Primary health centers – generally have 6 beds, which can be raised to 10.

Service marketing environment Hospital industry

Intangibility:- Health care services being highly intangible, to beat this intangibility the irony of modern marketing take place such as use of more tangible feature to make things real and believable.

Inconsistency:-Quality of service offered differs from one extreme to another. This is because of total dependence on human interactivity or playing human nature, i.e because human beings can never mechanize or replicate themselves.

Inseparability: Service transaction becomes unique because it mandates, during transaction, the physical presence of the provider and the consumer.

Perishability: Services are intangible, they cannot be packed & neither can be stored nor can they be inventoried. The implication is that the service has to be produced and consumed instantly; there is no scope of storage.

Service Marketing Mix of Fortis Hospital

1) PRODUCT

A product is a set of attributes assembled in an identifiable form. The product is the central component of any marketing mix. The product component of the marketing mix deals with a variety of issues relating to development, presentation and management of the product which is to be offered to the market place. It covers issues such as service package, core services and peripherals, managing service offering and developing service offering.

Hospitals today offer the following services:

1. Emergency services – A comprehensive emergency department exists, which provides life saving medical services to patients under one roof. The emergency consists of 144 beds and has occupancy of 200%. It caters to medical, pediatric, trauma and surgical emergencies round the clock. The new emergency block has attached laboratory, X ray/ Ultrasound/ ECG and 4 operation theatres functioning round the clock.

2. Ambulance services – Hi-tech ambulances linked by state-of-the-art telecommunications are fully equipped with doctors that are available to render medical attention and assistance in case of emergencies at the patient’s doorstep.

3. Diagnostic services – Modern Hospitals are multi-specialty and multi-disciplinary, that can handle any kind of ailment, they offer a wide range of facilities for instance, Oncology, Orthopedics, Neurology, Plastic surgery and so on.

4. Pharmacy services – Most of the hospitals also have a pharmacy which is open 24 hours. It caters to the needs not only of the inpatients and outpatients, but also patients from other hospitals who require emergency drugs.

5. Causality services – Causality service includes a 24 hrs. Causality department, which attends to the accident or emergency cases.

Apart from the above mentioned services, hospital also offers “Health Diagnosis Programmed” which is a complete, comprehensive, periodic health check up offered for busy executives, professionals, business persons and so on.

2)PRICE

It is one of the most prominent elements in the marketing mix. Price charged must be able to target customers and it should co-ordinate with other elements of the marketing mix. Price usually depends on treatment prescribed by the respective consultants and the facilities offered to the patient.

As a service is intangible, it is very hard for deciding the price of the particular service offered. Pricing strategy adopted does not depend on the price offered by competitors. The pricing strategy is formulated after consulting the concerned heads of department. Prices of various facilities revised every year depending on the change in technology. Before fixing prices, government controls are also taken into consideration.

On admission, an initial deposit will be collected at the inpatient billing counter. The amount extends on the category of room and the treatment or surgical procedure planned. Various categories of rooms, ranging from the general ward which attends to the needs of the lower classes to the deluxe suite which attends to the needs of the middle and upper classes are available.

FORTIS does not believe in profit maximization, it aims at providing quality service for its customers at reasonable price.

3)PROMOTION

Promotion function of any service organization involves the transmission of message to present, past and potential customers. Customers need to be made aware of the existence of the service offered. Promotion includes advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity.

FORTIS do not normally undertake aggressive promotion, they rely a lot on a favorable word of mouth. To crease the clientele, FORTIS may continuously introduce different health services like the acupressure clinic, master health programmers and diabetes health checkups apart from annual health checkups offered to different companies.

4)PLACE

The two major issues considered regarding the decision of a place are accessibility and availability of the service to customers. Accessibility refers to the ease and convenience with which a service can be purchased, used or received. Availability refers to the extent to which a service is obtainable or capable of being purchased, used and received.

FORTIS is easy accessible and available for the customers. FORTIS is the biggest hospital with special treatment in the region. There is no competitor for FORTIS in the region.

5)PEOPLE

The People component reflects the important role played by individuals in the provision of services. People are also an important element in the marketing mix.

The staff of FORTIS is trained to offer quality patient care with human touch using state of the art technology. FORTIS staff is well educated & specialist in their field . FORTIS Administration provides good equipment to the staff.

The objective of offering quality service to the patients can be attained by:

Motivating employees to be efficient, dedicated and loyal to the organization.

Offering regular on-job training of employees to ensure continuous improvement in health care.

Utilizing services of professional competent medical consultants.

Use of latest technology.

6)PROCESS

Process is a set of activities that take an input, convert it and add value to the input and finally create an output. Process has only recently been given much attention in the service sector although it has been the subject to study in manufacturing for many years. Processes are designed by blue a print, which sets a standard for action to take place and to implement the service.

7)PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

It is the environment in which the service is delivered with physical or tangible commodities and where the firm and the customer interact. Physical evidence plays an important role in hospital services.

It makes a huge impact on the customer. Physical evidence offers customers means of evaluating the service. Corporate image plays in important role in terms of physical evidence. This can be developed through corporate relation programmers.

FORTIS staff follows a dress code to show professionalism and to maintain discipline. The staff is trained to be understanding, warm and comforting because the clientele that goes to the hospital is usually disturbed or unhappy.

FORTIS is well organized and segregated into different departments like plastic surgery, urology, neuro surgery,E.N.T . All the doctors should be offered with a well-equipped cabin. Ventilation is taken care of by air-conditioning.

Pricing of Services forFORTIS

It is one of the most prominent elements in the marketing mix. Price charged must be able to target customers and it should co-ordinate with other elements of the marketing mix. Price usually depends on treatment prescribed by the respective consultants and the facilities offered to the patient.

As a service is intangible, it is very hard for deciding the price of the particular service offered. Pricing strategy adopted does not depend on the price offered by competitors. The pricing strategy is formulated after consulting the concerned heads of department. Prices of various facilities revised every year depending on the change in technology. Before fixing prices, government controls are also taken into consideration.

On admission, an initial deposit will be collected at the inpatient billing counter. The amount extends on the category of room and the treatment or surgical procedure planned. Various categories of rooms, ranging from the general ward which attends to the needs of the lower classes to the deluxe suite which attends to the needs of the middle and upper classes are available.

A hospital does not believe in profit maximization, it aims at providing quality service for its customers at reasonable price.

Customer Requirements& Customer Expectations

How do buyers form their expectations? From past buying experiences, friends’ and associates’ advice, and marketers’ and competitors’ information and promises. If marketers raise expectations too high, the buyer is likely to be disappointed. However, if the company sets expectations too low, it won’t attract enough customers. Some of today’s most successful companies are raising expectations and delivering performances to match. These companies are aiming for TCS- total customer satisfaction.

The value proposition consists of the whole cluster of benefits the company promises to deliver; it is more than the core positioning of the offering. Whether the promise is kept depends on the company’s ability to manage its value delivery system.

Customer satisfaction is a feeling of pleasure or disappointment on the offers perceived performance in relation to buyers’ expectations. Expectation is defined as what the customer wants/requires from the product/service and perceived performance is the perception of the customer about the product/service i.e. evaluation of the product/service after using it. So perception is what the customer actually receives/gets from the product/service. The evaluation is done by comparing the expectations with the perceived performance of the product/service. Therefore customer satisfaction is a function of perceived performance and customer expectations. Customers who are just satisfied find it easy to switch over when a better offer comes than those who are highly satisfied. For customer focused companies satisfaction is both a goal as well as a marketing tool. What a consumer thinks about the product or services offered by a firm can have a marked effect on the purchase of its products or services. So one of the tasks before the management is to know what the consumer expect and what they are getting in return.

Satisfaction is a judgment that a product or service feature, or the product or service itself, provided a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment, including levels of under- or over fulfillment.

QUALITY CONCERNS

RELIABILITY-Ensuring that Doctor as well trained and experience

ASSURANCE- Trust the number of successful treatment

TANGIBLES-Surrounding areas, rooms, surgery equipment

EMPATHY- Courtesy showed by nurses, ward boys etc.

RESPONSIVENESS- Emergency responsiveness

SERVICE SCAPE OF FORTIS

Human behavior is influenced by physical surrounding. If it is raining outside, we take an umbrella or postpone a trip that was planned. Instead of walking, we may take a bus or car to our destination. In the same manner that the natural world around us impacts our behavior, so do the human-made elements. Within the service setting, the physical surrounding of the service will affect both customers and employees. The physical elements of a service are called its services cape.

Elements of services cape

Physical facility: exterior and interior of a facility with all of its furnishing. Equipment and décor

Location: Physical location of the facility.

Ambient condition : Intangible elements of a service environment such as sound , temperature,

Interpersonal conditions: interaction between customers and service personnel.

Draft of services cape of FORTIS

Location: when choosing a site location, services must examine six criteria: operational position, merchantability, traffic interception, cumulative competitive attraction, competitive compatibility, accessibility.

Physical facility: components of the physical facility that impact both customers and employees include the exterior appearance and the interior décor, layout, furniture, and equipment. For new potential customers, the exterior of the facility is an important determination in the purchase decision.

Exterior appearance:

The exterior appearance of the FORTIS is the related with the cost efficiency. FORTIS have a huge space for the parking. Parking is divided into two parts one for emergency department and one for OPD department. There is aspirate parking for the staff of the FORTIS. FORTIS have a big ground which is useful for the patient family.

Interior appearance: the interior appearance of the FORTIS is very good. In the internal part of the FORTIS every department have number of chair in separate room for the patient family. This room have a T.V also.

Positioning map of FORTIS

A useful technique in determining a positioning mapping. Position mapping involves graphically mapping a firm and its competitors relative to the two major purchase criteria. To be of benefit, the axis of the graph needs to be the two most important criteria consumer use in choosing a vendor from within an industry.

FortisHIGH

AIIMsSPRICE

DMC

PGIGIGI

LOW

LOW Quality high

This positioning map shows the positioning map for FORTIS. This map show the position of FORTIS competitor. In this graph I take the two criteria on which bases in draft a position map for FORTIS. There is major Competitor for FORTIS but in positioning map I take only DMC, Ludhiana, ESCORT, AIIMS .

Service Segmentation for FORTIS

There are two major ways of segmenting the health care market: patient characteristics and marketing practices. Each of these two major methods has several sub options. Segmentation based on patient characteristics

There are three different types of patient characteristics which are useful for segmenting the healthcare market : patient demographics, patient psychographic and patient frequency of heath care utilization

For the segmentation for the FORTIS there are various attributes which are considering for the segmentation. These attributes may be many in number. They may include: –

Reliability

Prices

Reputation of doctors

Quality of equipment

Number of supporting specialties

Amount and quality of miscellaneous services like catering, housekeeping, etc.

Distance from the house

Recommendations from someone

Who will pay for the treatment

In the case of the FORTIS mainly three factors influence the perception of the customer. These are basically are reliability, prices, number of supporting specialties.

This will be so because the hospital is located in an area which has nuclear families and hence, the small family size makes reliability an important factor.

BLUE PRINT

PHYSICAL

Parking Lobby Check-up Operation Theatre

Security Stairs Cashier Equipments Canteen Room Medicine

PROCESS

Receptionist

Nurses

Surgeons

Doctor

Receptionist

Leave

Payment

Post

Operation

care

Operation

Doctor

visit

Register & go

to the room

Arrive at

hospital

Line of interaction

CONTACT

PERSON

Line of visibility

Registration

system

Studying the Patient

case

Registration

systemINVISIBLE

GAP MODEL

Currently, hospital in India is generally fairly mature in terms of service, remains a challenge for the private sector. The elimination of this waste and meeting customer expectations are the major challenges facing managers these days in the service sector. This is why service improvement is a vital concern for many service organizations.

The key points for each gap can be summarized as follows:

GAP 1: gap one is the difference between what the customer expect from a service and what management believes customers expect from a service. In the case of hospital, it is very difficult to predict that Patient want, every patient want to recover from his/her diseases very early. In the case of hospital gap 1 arises when doctor make a wrong perception about the diseases of patient but in actual patient is suffered from other diseases.

GAP 2: Gap two is the difference between management perception of consumer expectation of a service and the service quality specification. Sometime in FORTIS management make a perception that patient want nuclear technique for surgery but FORTIS does not have this kind of facility.

GAP 3: Gap three is the difference between the service quality specification for a service and the delivery of that specification by the service provider. IN Fortis sometime staff know that what type of treatment a patient want but they don’t provide treatment to patient.

GAP 4 : gap four is the difference between the service that was delivered and the external communication of the firm. Sometime FORTIS promise that there is no problem of blood in FORTIS but in actual they have a problem of blood & they charge a high rate from customer.

GAP 5: Gap five is the sum of gaps one through four and is the overall comparison of what consumer expected from the service provider and their perception of the service they receive from the service provider.

Service Recovery

In terms of satisfaction states, service failure are the instances when customers leave a service angry or dissatisfied. A strong service recovery process can produce positive result and overcoming most service failure. Successful recovery will diminish the negative impact of the original poor or failure service for three reasons. A good service recovery process takes away all of the negative consequences of a service failure, such as loss of time or money.

Draft of service recovery strategies for FORTIS

Delay in treatment: sometime in FORTIS doctor is not available for treatment than management refer that patient to another doctor.

If there is a mistake make the doctor in the treatment than management make a apologies among the patient & give a free treatment in future.

If there is a big mistake make by doctor because of that a critical situation arises than management can form a committee for the investigation.

Management can issue a apologies note in newspaper.

EMPLOYEE AND CUSTOMER ROLE IN SERVICE DELIVERY

FORTIS recognizes that customer’s expectation/requirement/grievances can be better appreciated through personal interaction with PATIENT by FORTIS staff. Structured Patient meets, say once in a month will give a message to the customers that the FORTIS cares for them. Many of the complaints arise on account of lack of awareness among patient about HOSPITAL services and such interactions will help the customers appreciate Hospital services better. As for the hospital the feed back from customers would be valuable input for revising its services to meet customer requirements.

Customers treated fairly at all times

Complaints raised by customers are dealt with courtesy and on time

Customers are fully informed of avenues to escalate their complaints/grievances within the organization and their rights to alternative remedy, if they are not fully satisfied with the response of the bank to their complaints.

FORTIS treat all complaints efficiently and fairly as they can damage the Hospital reputation The bank employees work in good faith and without prejudice to the interests of the customer.

Hiring, training and supervising all staff that works within the hospital. Completing all necessary security checks and reference checks for potential employees.

Setting policies and training staff regarding changes in hospital policies as needed.

Following all Hospital policies as determined by the board of directors or bank president or owner.

Integrated Services Marketing communication

Brand building through corporate advertising, defined generally as advertising that benefits a company’s image by emphasizing its own resources, skills and/or character. Many astute business people now recognize corporate brands as fundamental business assets, and have begun reaching out to customers, prospects, and the financial community by advertising those brands.

Brand building advertising is synonymous with product advertising and is commonly seen in traditional mass media, including TV, radio, magazine, and newspaper. Brand building advertisements tend to be product/service- (or retailer-) oriented with the purpose to establish a positive image and creating demand for a product or service that leads to eventual purchase. The communication route is typically one-to-many and is designed to reach a mass audience by using a tactic of at capturing the attention of users.

Promotion is nothing but making the customer more and more aware of the services and benefits provided by the hospital. The hospital today can use a lot of new technology to communicate to their customers. Because FORTIS hospital so they do not spend a lot of money on the promotion of the services of the FORTIS. In today scenario many organization use many tools of the promotion like advertisement ( print media, electronic media), publicity, public relation , unconventional tool. Many hospital like escort hospital, new max hospital use the advertisement tool for sale promotion.

But FORTIS use the public relation and unconventional tools for to communicate with the customers.

Public relation: FORTIS arrange many program to make a relation with public like conference on health issue, free health check up camp, special health check up camp in slum area.

Newspaper: FORTIS use the newspaper to communicate with customers. They tell to customers about their new facility time to time to public through local newspapers

MANAGING WAITING LINES

In FORTIS a thousand of people visit the hospital for their treatment. So there is a huge rush in the hospital. On the registration counter people wait for a minute to a hour. It make a difficulty for the staff to provide a good service quality to patient. So it become compulsory for FORTIS management to manage the waiting line of patient. Before some time it is compulsory for patient to register themselves at every visit but now in central registration counter patient register at first visit. On the next visit, patient direct go to their department and mark a date stamp from that department staff.

In the lab, FORTIS management refers their routine patient to the emergency department to reduce the waiting time for various test. They manage very well in the emergency and OPD department.