Also read: How to manage multiple Health Covers!
The trio has set up in-hospital centres, in small town India enabling patients to get quality treatments near their homes. Indian business school alumni Gaurav Porwal and Saurav Panda along with their friend and strategic partner Rajeev Sindhi of Sandor Medicaids, are targeting the niche market of renal failure in small town India.
Founded in 2010, Sparsh Nephrocare collaborates with hospitals in tier II and tier III cities to space in basic infrastructure to run dialysis centers. Sparsh brings in the investment towards dialysis equipments, skilled manpower and runs the day-to-day operation with their partner hospitals. The revenue is shared as per a pre- agreed contract that lasts for up to seven years.
However, in an industry where it is easy to make good margins by locating facilities in metro cities, so why is Sparsh targeting new untested markets and that too with a low-cost model?
Commenting on the low-cost model, Porwal says, we looked at healthcare and explored various options and realized that healthcare service delivery is a very important need in our country and especially, in the area of kidney dialysis.
"We are focusing primarily on tier II and III cities and we are actually expanding the market by taking the treatment to the masses, as compared to majority of our competition, which is building facilities in big cities where there are already a lot of facilities. So it is more of sharing the market as compared to expanding the market," he adds.
Moreover, Sparsh Nephrocare knows that low cost does not equate to low profits. Currently generating an EBITDA of around 30 percent, a net profit margin of up to 15 percent, the venture aims to hit the Rs 5 crore mark this year of which Rs 3 crore will accrue directly to Sparsh. Having reached more than 300 patients, a team carries out 3,000 dialysis sessions every month across its 15 centers located in towns like Bidar, Sirsi and Rudrapur. The key to their success is the focus on keeping cost low.
"We have our own service team here, which helps us in reducing cost of our repair and servicing of machines and equipments. This helps us in keeping the dialysis cost affordable, which is the main aim of our company," says Panda.
With prices of raw materials and amenities soaring, what does Sparsh do to curb cost? - Panda says, "We take space inside the hospital. We run outsourced dialysis service for them. We only bring in our dialysis equipment and skilled manpower to run the centers, and since we have a skill we can reduce cost there."
Buying into the Sparsh Nephrocare low-cost model are doctors and hospitals that often need external investment and expertise in setting up and managing dialysis centers on their premises. Helping partner hospitals, increase their efficiency is the Sparsh Nephrocare enterprise resource planning tool, which helps to streamline patient data and information.
Panda says, "We at Sparsh have developed software, which helps us in managing dialysis operation in a better way".
Available to both doctors and patients online, it will help track the progress of a patient's health and dialysis treatment. Realizing the dialysis treatment requires purified water, Sparsh Nephrocare also sets up water treatment plant customized for each location. Over the last couple of years the Sparsh team has build-up considerable expertise.
When asked if the Nephrocare team plans to ply solo, Panda said,"Presently patients' psychology in India is such that they feel secure in a hospital environment. So, not only that our business model of low cost forces us to be in hospital but also the patients' psychology in India right now is not open for standalone dialysis center."
Going forward he said, people are getting educated and are becoming more confident. So, there will be a stage when they would accept standalone centers. At that point of time, because of our expertise, we would be able to open a standalone dialysis as well.
Having built a functional partnership with hospitals in tier two and three cities across India, the 70 member Sparsh team is now going down the expansion route with plans to open four new dialysis centers by the end of this financial year and 75 new centers in even smaller cities in India by 2016.
As long as business ventures like Sparsh Nephrocare gain traction in India the future of low cost quality healthcare gains promise.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Sparsh Nephrocare: Low cost quality healthcare a reality
Dengan url
http://untukkesehatanda.blogspot.com/2013/03/sparsh-nephrocare-low-cost-quality.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Sparsh Nephrocare: Low cost quality healthcare a reality
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Sparsh Nephrocare: Low cost quality healthcare a reality
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar