Expectations from 2022 for my medical facility

In last two years, the healthcare space has seen a fast-paced revolution, and for times to come we may witness a whole lot of it happening or seeing as the work-in-progress. The new normal taught everyone new ways of dealing with things, and hospitals for that matter were leading it from the forefront.

For my facility, which is quite new and was struggling to gain foothold in the competitive market, Covid pandemic actually turned out to be a fast-track brand-establishing exercise due to sheer numbers, which were catered to in Covid.

For the year 2022-23, the expectations laid out are aligned to the changed scenario, and it is pertinent on our part to see through the opportunity rather than mulling over on bygones.

Case mix. Last two years were predominantly tilted toward mostly medical cases due to Covid and related illnesses. At one point in time, the specialties like ENT, Ophthal, etc., which can be termed as bread-and-butter specialties for any hospital were virtually non-existing as hardly any work was happening in them. Moreover, lot of cancer cases, transplants, etc., were on hold or getting postponed either due to fear of Covid or accidental detection of Covid pre-op. I would expect and as it is, it’s happening now that all the surgical specialties would start delivering in terms of work and revenue. Also, the most affected maternal and child health streams would start showing up in OP and IP both. The trend should go back to a healthy case mix with seasonal illnesses adding to the surge in occupancy during monsoon and surgical cases peaking in winter and last quarter, albeit all these assumptions are based on expectation that we would have minimal Covid surges, if any, in this year. All in all, the math of ALOS and ARPOB should return back to normal is my expectation.

OP business and diagnostics had taken a big hit during the pandemic as patients were wary of coming to the hospital, and online consultations as well as home collections had become a new normal. I expect it to quickly reverse but at the same time, the online consultations will remain popular and it may still form a sizeable part in the OP business since patients would not mind sitting at their home or office and meeting their doctors virtually.

Channel mix. With healthcare insurance booming post pandemic, there would be a significant shift from cash to credit business, which will impact ARPOB and cash flow in a big way although it will help us in a long way as most of our patient base belongs to this category, thereby increasing the overall revenue. The whole lot of money of credit business done with big private corporates and PSUs is piled up as receivables, which definitely has a high impact on cash flow, needs to be recovered at a faster pace.

International business is set to go to a new high since there is a lot of backlog, which needs to be taken care of and the needle has hardly moved in the last two years. Also, we might see various other countries seeking medical treatment in India added to the list due to Ukraine war.

HR. Contrary to the normal laying off in other businesses, hospitals hired a lot of people in Covid. There were some quick decisions, which we had to take to combat manpower shortage, which was unbudgeted but essential. Lot of paramedics, nurses got added in the system. Going forward, emphasis would be on medical talent acquisition, which would put a lot of strain on our HR budget. Good amount would be spent on L&D, which also needs attention.

Marketing. Although trade and corporate remain the mainstay here but retaining the overwhelming clientele, acquired during Covid via IP, OP, and vaccination drives, would surely be the low hanging fruit herein. Therefore, emphasis would be on ATL activities and digital marketing, which can emerge as a game changer this year.

SCM. CapEx spends would see a significant increase since most of our planned medical programs were put on hold owing to pandemic and many of them have to be put on track at the earliest to meet up with the budgeted revenue and occupancy.

The general perception in the masses has been that hospitals had a good run during the pandemic. Although that is far from true, as most of us are still recovering from the physical and mental fatigue and although we had full occupancies but we would never want to face it again.

As a private healthcare organization we would expect the government and the public at large to recognize the efforts and outcomes of those who gave it when it mattered the most.