Study on the Service Marketing aspects of Bumrungrad Hospitals, Thailand

1. Bumrungrad (bahm-roong-RAHT)
“care for the people”
Satyanarayana Rao

2. Agenda
• Overview
• Ps’ People, Process, Physical evidence
• Customer Service
• Quality Attributes
• Service Quality
• Satisfaction
• Perspectives
• Reviews

3. Overview
Bumrungrad’s goal is to provide world class medicine and
service. It is guided by four criteria:
• the objective quality of professional care;
• patient satisfaction with care and service;
• staff satisfaction; and
• continuous improvement.
Attract and retain the best doctors, Nurture your people
Satisfy your patients and
continually Improve what you Do

4. Overview

5. STP

6. 4Ps
• PRODUCT/SERVICE
– Large Multi-specialty Hospital Services
• PRICE
– Low price, considerably lower for International patients
• PLACE
– Reputed quality Healthcare
• PROMOTION
– Focus on expats, International patients
– Collaboration with Thai airways
– Promoting packages for patients from UK, US & Asian countries
– diversified patient portfolio: international patient strategy
– Compete not only on quality, but also on convenience.

7. People
• Employees
– 1,700 are doctors and nurses, 1300 provide variety of non-medical
services
• Communicating culture & Values
– Strive for professional excellence and innovation
– Nearly all Bumrungrad doctors speak English
• Employee research
– committed to Medical and Hospital staff’s welfare, education,
training and development

8. Process
• Number of steps
– All processes are documented as SOPs
– Processes are audited and certified
• Level of customer involvement
– High customer involvement
– 4Cs:communication, convinience, comfort &
coordination
• Flow of activities
– Proactive CQA teams go around to monitor and
take care of corrective actions

9. Physical Evidence
• Facility design
– Process friendly, congenial for patients
• Equipment
– State-of-the art technologies and diagnostics, high
involvement of IT services
• Signage
– plans to handle its future wayfinding problems by completely
replacing its current system with a more advanced and flexible one.
• Other tangibles: Resemblance of 5-star hotel
• Employee dress
– Hygeine and cleanliness is top priority

10. Service Quality
• Customer expectation
• Management perception
• Service quality specifications
• Service delivery
• Expected service
• Gaps model
• Service quality is concerned with the ability of an
organisation to meet or exceed customer
expectations.

11. Quality Dimensions
• Reliability: Delivering promises dependably
and accurately
• Responsiveness: willingness to help
• Empathy: Caring, individualised attention to
customers
• Assurance: Inspiring trust and confidence
• Tangibles: Physical representation of service

12. Reliability
• Providing service as promised
– World class healthcare with dependable quality
• Dependability in handling customers’ service problems
– Customer service has been rated > 90th percentile
• Performing services right the first time
– Lowest failure rates benchmarked with world-class hospitals
• Providing services at the promised time
– Fastest response time in the business. Patient inquiries are
typically answered in 24 hrs or less
• Maintaining error-free records
– GCS system

13. Responsiveness
• In-Hospital Experience
– Right kind of ambience and service experience
• Prompt services to customers
– 33 specialty centers; ~1,000 doctors representing virtually all specialties and sub-
specialties
• Keeping customers informed when services shall be
performed
– Intl patients webpage: to access service
– “Find a doctor” webpage to help patients fix prior appoitments

14. Responsiveness
• Willingness to help customers
– Round the clock services
– Kid-friendly environment “Kid Zone”: edutainment, BH theatre; Well
baby centre
– BH expects its patient numbers to double, exceeding the current capacities.
Adding a fourth building to its complex.
• plans to handle its future wayfinding problems by completely replacing its current
system with a more advanced and flexible one.
• Criteria: Visibility, Flexibility, Ease of use, Proper amount of Information,
Appropriateness of location, consistency, Reliability and Feasibility.
• Readiness to respond to customers’ requirements
– Helicopter for emergencies
– Intensive care units: Adult, Cardiac, Pediatric, Neonatal
– OP clinics could accommodate ~ 3000 patients/day

15. Assurance
• Employees who instill confidence in patients
– JCI accreditation has 1,200 measurable elements in its 13 chapters of standards
• Making customers feel safe in their treatments
– Most of the consultants have international exposure and long years of
experience
• Employees who are quality conscious
• Employees who have the experience to answer
patient queries
– Intl Patient Centre provided services: language translation, insurance,
interaction with the doctor from their country, procuring visas and
repatriation

16. Empathy
• Satellite offices in Asian countries
– quality healthcare was unavailable/expensive
– Assistance to foreigners for visa procurement and travel arrangements,
providing cost estimates
• Sensitivity training: dealing customers with caring fashion
– Communication without boarders: Provide 29 kinds of language translation,
the hospital site have dozens of text. Arabic interpreters
• Customer’s best interest at heart
– Religious & cultural needs of patients: Muslim
– Food & Catering: Halal kitchen
–Giving customers individual attention
– We Speak Your Language

17. Tangibles
• Visually appealing facilities: Resemblance to 5-star hotel
– VIP suites to semi-private and budget wards
– Meticulous services, rehabilitation care, cooks cooking, laundry cleaning,
insurance consultant Express, typing, printing, such as car Shuttle everything.
• Congenial ambience
– Hostesses trained in foreign languages
– Variety of restaurants
– Shopping mall concept: gift shops, florists, salons, supermarkets, travel
agencies and other outlets life, as a shopping plaza
– Cyber corners, Meeting rooms, visitors Lounge, maids bed facilities
• Modern Equipment:
– World’s smartest hospital MIS
– Advanced laboratory & diagnostic equipment
– Robotic pharmacy dispensing system

18. Customer Service
• Service Marketing mix
– Changing customer expectations
– Increased importance of customer service
– Need for Customer relationship
• Service Strategy
– Identifying a service mission
– Setting customer service objectives
– Customer service strategy
– Implementation

19. Service Quality
• Benchmarking Maryland project
– (IQIP -- International Quality Indicator Project) for Global care Option
• TQM [Total Quality Management]
– Works with Quality management committee on clinical measures:
medication error, infection rate, fall rate, unplanned readmission to
the emergency room, unplanned return to the operating theatre,
medication error rates
• JCI accreditation
– 1,200 measurable elements in its 13 chapters of standards
• Service Blueprinting / Process Analysis
– Cycle of service analysis
– Value Chain analysis
– Storyboarding
• Customer retention
• Relationship marketing

20. Service Quality: IT
• GCS improve and maintain integrated total hospital information system
• Pillpick robotic technology: medications selected and delivered to reduce
potential medication errors. CPOE -- computerized physician order entry --
for medication directly to Swisslog robot dispensing, bedside computer
monitors and medication-administration stations
• PACS (picture archiving and communications system)holds 35 million
scanned images and is adding 5,000 to 15,000 new images daily
• FOCUSING ON PATIENT CARE: detailed workflow analysis focused on
enhancing the patient experience
• EFFICIENCIES UP, ERRORS DOWN: watching proactively, so if there’s a
problem, we know about it instantly
• Hospital2000: 99.999% reliability, 2 million patient records, handle peak
loads of 225 statements per second

21. Service Triangle
• Setting Promises
– Promotional brochures
– Representative offices
• Enabling Promises
– complete support service infrastructure to manage inbound
patients, including partnerships with leading inbound and
outbound travel and tour operators
• Keeping Promises (Transparency)
– Visitors could find facilities and treatments available
– ‘Find a doctor’ to book appointments
– Customers can view medical records (Hospital 2000)

22. Satisfaction
• Patient satisfaction measures: Gallup opinion survey group
– has a database of over 100 hospitals worldwide
– three types of surveys -- patient, staff and doctor engagement
– international patients index, ranked 94th percentile
– 89th percentile recommend this hospital to a family member or friend
• Patients are better informed
• Patients Feedback for making improvements
• Patient satisfaction is not Static but Dynamic
– lot of focus is on basic blocking and tackling of how to actually deliver
our services, finding out what the customer wants, and giving it to
them as rapidly and effectively

23. Satisfaction
• Good Medical Care
• Good Nursing Care
• Less Waiting Time
• Excellent Hospitality
• Personal Attention
• Courteous Behavior
• Affordable Charges
• Cleanliness
• Good Coordination
• Cooperation among the Staff
• Discipline
• Communication & Information
• Transparency in charges and procedures: REALCOST

24. Perspectives
• Availability
– Services are available for longer or convenient hours
– Patients are provided information through Brochures, Publicity, etc on services
available
– Services are reliable and offered promptly
– Required equipment are available
– Patient friendly Systems & Procedures
• Acceptability
– Good public transportation
– Centrally located
– Outreach Programs to reach out to the Rural People
• Affordability
– Standard pricing structure
– Charges affordable by most of the people in the Community
– Transparency in Patient Fees – no hidden charges
– Simple procedure for getting free/subsidized care

25. Perspectives
• Attitude
– Sophisticated technology will automatically trigger demand
– Belief that patients, if need eye care, will definitely come to us
– Providing Service as per Providers’ Convenience
– Systems & Procedures are not patient friendly
– Gap between Patients’ Expectations & Providers’ Perception
– Lack of patient orientation
• Quality
– Skilled Doctor & other staff
– Standard Clinical Protocol
– Good Administrative System & Procedures
– Courtesy & Politeness
– Proper Explanation
– Clean environment and comforts meeting or exceeding expectations
– Systems to monitor clinical outcomes & Patient satisfaction

26. Reviews
• It's been called the Mecca of medical tourism. For the past 10 years, Thailand's
Bumrungrad International Hospital has been wooing patients from Boston to
Bahrain with a combination of lower-cost, state-of-the-art medical care along with
service worthy of a five-star hotel. In what seems far from the hustle and bustle of
the streets of Bangkok, more than one million patients, including some 40% from
over 190 countries, visit every year for treatment at Bumrungrad's high-tech,
upscale facilities (Wharton review)

27. Reviews
• Patients find short waiting times, excellent services and medical
specialties
• Benchmark for excellence in International healthcare
• Demonstrated some of the highest clinical success rates and lowest
infection rates in the world
• Fastest response time in the business. Patient inquiries are
typically answered in 24 hrs or less
• Ultra modern and beautiful and its technology is state-of-the-art.
• Truly global service facility

28. Bumrungrad’s strategy to woo foreign
patients
• Promotion
– Healthcare package trips in tie up with Thai airways
– UK targeted packages of healthcare services: all inclusive
– US, Europe & Japan: packages much lower than NH
schemes for diseases not covered under Med Ins
– Tie up for Spa services to complement treatments
– Thai traditional treatments
• Representation:
– 21 Offices in Vietnam, Burma, Bangladesh, Cambodia

29. Distinctive characteristics of
Bumrungrad’s healthcare services
•Structured approach with designated staff
•Good Rapport with Community
•Publicity through different media
•Promotion at Outreach activities
•Meetings/seminars for other doctors
•Developing a referral network
•Promotion through satisfied patients
•Industrial tie-up for routine examination of their employees

30. Relation among Service Mktg variables
• Customer satisfaction
• Quality of service
• Increased productivity
• Overall profitability

31. SWOT Analysis

32. Q ??