Introduction of Fortis Hospital
Fortis Healthcare Limited (FHL), one of India's greatest private healthcare companies with network of 22 hospitals and much 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 business also reported highest ever EBIDTA in any quarter of Rs 23. 16 crore registering growth of 44% when compared with Rs 16. 1 crore in the same period last fiscal. Both projects PSM (central purchase and supply management) and FOS (Fortis operating systems), implemented last year have led to improved operating margins of 16% as against 12% in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. The concentrated efforts of the company in controlling costs and enhancing 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 "making a world-class integrated healthcare delivery system in India, entailing the best possible 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 a location of 1 1, 50, 000 sq. ft, brings a wealth of medical expertise with the best possible talents amongst doctors, nurses etc. Health care service is the mixture of tangible and intangible aspect with the intangible aspect dominating the tangible aspect. Actually it can be reported to be completely intangible, in that, the services (consultancy) provided by the doctor are completely intangible. The tangible things could are the bed, the dcor, etc. Efforts created by hospitals to tangibles the service offering would be discussed in details in the initial characteristics area of the report.
Having the industry's most elaborate and exclusive Patient Care and Clinical Coordination teams stationed at each partner hospital, we offer you the smoothest and seamless care ever imagined.
The second mega hub hospital, in the Fortis Healthcare group, it suits the special needs of patients and their families. A healthcare facility has been designed and developed to provide 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've allocation space far above the current Indian norm of 800-900 sq. ft/bed. This allows for overall flexibility to adapt and accommodate future trends of patient care.
In addition to the Super specialty services the hospital 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 based on 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 enhance the quality of medical aid.
General hospital for treating general ailments.
Special hospitals for specialized services in a single 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 federal government.
Voluntary organizations also run hospitals.
Charitable trusts also run hospitals.
On the foundation 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 foundation of the SIZE, there are:
Teaching hospitals - generally have 500 beds, which is often adjusted in tune with quantity 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 with regards to 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 in one extreme to some other. It is because of total dependence on human interactivity or playing human nature, i. e because humans can never mechanize or replicate themselves.
Inseparability: Service transaction becomes unique because it mandates, during transaction, the physical existence of the provider and the buyer.
Perishability: Services are intangible, they cannot be packed & neither can be stored nor can they be inventoried. The implication is that the service needs to be produced and consumed instantly; there is absolutely no scope of storage.
Service Marketing Mix of Fortis Hospital
1) PRODUCT
A product is a couple of attributes assembled within an identifiable form. The product is the central component of any marketing mix. The product component of the marketing mix deals with a number of issues relating to development, presentation and management of the merchandise which is to be offered to the marketplace place. It covers issues such as service package, core services and peripherals, managing service offering and developing service offering.
Hospitals today provide following services:
1. Emergency services - A comprehensive emergency department exists, which gives life saving medical services to patients under one roof. The emergency consists of 144 beds and has occupancy of 200%. It suits medical, pediatric, trauma and surgical emergencies round the clock. The brand new emergency block has attached laboratory, X ray/ Ultrasound/ ECG and 4 procedure 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 are designed for almost any ailment, they provide a variety 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 a day. 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 carries a 24 hrs. Causality department, which attends to the accident or emergency cases.
Apart from all these services, hospital also offers "Health Diagnosis Programmed" which is a complete, comprehensive, periodic health check-up offered for busy executives, professionals, business folks 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 will co-ordinate with other elements of the marketing mix. Price usually depends upon treatment approved by the respective consultants and the facilities offered to the individual.
As something is intangible, it is very hard for deciding the price tag on the particular service offered. Pricing strategy adopted does not depend on the price made available from competitors. The pricing strategy is formulated after consulting the concerned heads of department. Prices of various facilities revised annually with respect to the change in technology. Before fixing prices, government controls are also taken into consideration.
On admission, a short deposit will be collected at the inpatient billing counter. The amount extends on the group of room and the procedure or surgical procedure planned. Various categories of rooms, ranging from the overall ward which attends to the needs of the low classes to the deluxe suite which attends to the needs of the center and upper classes are available.
FORTIS does not believe in profit maximization, it aims at providing quality service because of 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 good 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 aside from twelve-monthly health checkups offered to different companies.
4)PLACE
The two major issues considered about the decision of a location are accessibility and availability of the service to customers. Accessibility identifies the ease and convenience with which something can be purchased, used or received. Availability refers to the extent to which something is obtainable or with the capacity of being purchased, used and received.
FORTIS is easy accessible and designed for the customers. FORTIS is the biggest hospital with special treatment in your community. There is no competitor for FORTIS in your community.
5)PEOPLE
The People component reflects quite 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 provide quality patient care with human touch using cutting edge 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 achieved by:
Motivating employees to be efficient, dedicated and loyal to the business.
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 couple of activities that take an input, convert it and add value to the input and lastly create an output. Process has only been recently given much attention in the service sector although it has been the subject to study in manufacturing for many years. Processes were created by blue a print, which sets a standard for action to occur also to implement the service.
7)PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
It is the surroundings where the service is delivered with physical or tangible commodities and where in fact the firm and the client interact. Physical evidence plays an important role in hospital services.
It makes an enormous impact on the customer. Physical evidence offers customers method of evaluating the service. Corporate image plays in important role in conditions of physical evidence. This can be developed through corporate relation programmers.
FORTIS staff follows a dress code showing professionalism also to maintain discipline. The staff is trained to be understanding, warm and comforting because the clientele that would go to a healthcare facility 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 looked after by air-conditioning.
Pricing of Services forFORTIS
It is one of the very most prominent elements in the marketing mix. Price charged must have the ability to target customers and it will co-ordinate with other components of the marketing mix. Price usually depends upon treatment recommended by the respective consultants and the facilities offered to the individual.
As something is intangible, it's very hard for deciding the price of this 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 with respect to the change in technology. Before fixing prices, government controls are also taken into account.
On admission, a short deposit will be collected at the inpatient billing counter. The total amount extends on the group of room and the treatment or medical procedure planned. Various categories of rooms, ranging from the general ward which attends to the needs of the low classes to the deluxe suite which attends to the needs of the center and upper classes can be found.
A hospital will not have confidence in profit maximization, it aims at providing quality service for its customers at reasonable price.
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 may very well be disappointed. However, if the business sets expectations too low, it will not attract enough customers. A few of today's most successful companies are raising expectations and delivering performances to match. These companies are targeting TCS- total customer satisfaction.
The value proposition consists of the complete cluster of benefits the company promises to provide; it is more than the core positioning of the offering. If the promise is kept depends on the company's ability to manage its value delivery system.
Customer satisfaction is a sense 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 client about the product/service i. e. analysis of the product/service after utilizing it. So perception is what the customer actually receives/gets from the product/service. The analysis is performed by comparing the expectations with the perceived performance of the product/service. Therefore client satisfaction is a function of perceived performance and customer expectations. Customers who are just satisfied find it easy to switch over when a much better offer comes than those who are highly satisfied. For customer focused companies satisfaction is both an objective and a marketing tool. What a consumer thinks about the product or services provided by a company can have a marked effect on the purchase of its products or services. So one of the tasks prior to the management is to know what the buyer expect and what they are getting in return.
Satisfaction is a judgment a product or service feature, or the product or service itself, provided a pleasurable degree of consumption-related fulfillment, including degrees of under- or higher 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 vacation that was planned. Rather than walking, we might take a bus or car to our destination. Very much the same that the natural world all around us impacts our behavior, so do the human-made elements. In the service setting, the physical surrounding of the service will affect both customers and employees. The physical components of a service are called its services cape.
Elements of services cape
Physical facility: exterior and interior of any facility with most of its furnishing. Equipment and dcor
Location: Physical location of the facility.
Ambient condition : Intangible components of something environment such as sound, temperature,
Interpersonal conditions: interaction between customers and service personnel.
Draft of services cape of FORTIS
Location: when choosing a niche 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 dcor, layout, furniture, and equipment. For new potential customers, the exterior of the facility can be an important determination in the purchase decision.
Exterior appearance:
The exterior appearance of the FORTIS is the related with the cost efficiency. FORTIS have an enormous space for the parking. Parking is split into two parts one for emergency department and one for OPD department. There is certainly aspirate parking for the staff of the FORTIS. FORTIS have a big ground which pays to for the individual family.
Interior appearance: the interior appearance of the FORTIS is very good. In the inner area of the FORTIS every department have quantity of chair in separate room for the individual 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 company and its opponents relative to both major purchase criteria. To become of benefit, the axis of the graph must be the two most important conditions consumer used in choosing a vendor from in a industry.
FortisHIGH
AIIMsSPRICE
DMC
PGIGIGI
LOW
LOW Quality high
This positioning map shows the positioning map for FORTIS. This map show the positioning of FORTIS competitor. In such a graph I take the two criteria on which bases in draft a position map for FORTIS. You can find major Competitor for FORTIS but in positioning map I take only DMC, Ludhiana, ESCORT, AIIMS.
Service Segmentation for FORTIS
There are two major means of segmenting medical care market: patient characteristics and marketing practices. Each of these two major methods has several sub options. Segmentation predicated on patient characteristics
There are three different kinds of patient characteristics which are of help for segmenting the healthcare market : patient demographics, patient psychographic and patient frequency of heath care utilization
For the segmentation for the FORTIS there are several attributes which are thinking about for the segmentation. These attributes may be many in number. They could 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 can pay for the treatment
In the situation of the FORTIS mainly three factors influence the perception of the customer. These are basically are reliability, prices, quantity of supporting specialties.
This will be so because the hospital is found in an area which has nuclear families and hence, the tiny family size makes reliability a significant 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 normally fairly mature in conditions of service, remains a challenge for the private sector. The elimination of the waste and meeting customer expectations will be the major challenges facing managers nowadays in the service sector. That is why service improvement is a vital concern for most service organizations.
The key points for each gap can be summarized the following:
GAP 1: gap the first is the difference between what the customer expect from a service and what management believes customers expect from something. Regarding hospital, it's very difficult to predict that Patient want, every patient want to recover from his/her diseases very early. Regarding hospital gap 1 arises when doctor make a wrong perception about the diseases of patient but in actual patient is suffered with other diseases.
GAP 2: Gap two is the difference between management perception of consumer expectation of something and the service quality specification. Sometime in FORTIS management make a notion that patient want nuclear way of surgery but FORTIS doesn't 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 which kind of treatment a patient want nonetheless 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 are having issues of blood & they charge a high rate from customer.
GAP 5: Gap five is the sum of gaps one through four which is the entire comparison of what consumer expected from the service agency and their perception of the service they receive from the company.
Service Recovery
In conditions of satisfaction states, service failure are the times when customers leave something angry or dissatisfied. A strong service healing 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 healing process takes away every one of the negative consequences of something failure, such as lack 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 some other doctor.
If there's a mistake make the physician in the treatment than management make a apologies among the patient & provide a free treatment in future.
If there is a huge mistake make by doctor because of that a crucial situation arises than management can form a committee for the investigation.
Management can issue a apologies note in newspaper.
EMPLOYEE AND CUSTOMER ROLE OPERATING 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 per month will give a note to the clients that the FORTIS cares for them. Lots of the complaints arise due to insufficient awareness among patient about HOSPITAL services and such interactions will help the customers appreciate Hospital services better. 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 handled 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're not fully satisfied with the response of the bank with their complaints.
FORTIS treat all complaints effectively and fairly as they can harm the Hospital reputation The lender employees work in good faith and without prejudice to the interests of the client.
Hiring, training and supervising all staff that works within a healthcare facility. 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 dependant on 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 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 have a tendency to be product/service- (or retailer-) oriented with the reason to establish an optimistic image and creating demand for something or service that brings about eventual purchase. The communication route is normally one-to-many and is designed to reach a mass audience by 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. A healthcare facility today can use a lot of new technology to communicate to their customers. Because FORTIS hospital so they do not spend big 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 on the market promotion.
But FORTIS use the general 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 talk to 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 his or her treatment. So there's a huge rush in a healthcare facility. For the registration counter people wait for a minute to a hour. It make a problem for the staff to provide a good service quality to patient. So that it become compulsory for FORTIS management to manage the waiting line of patient. Before time it is compulsory for patient to join up themselves at every visit but now in central registration counter patient register initially visit. On another 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.
