Nursing a home health-care business

“I went about trying to find a nurse for my friend’s ailing mother, and I tired myself looking.” For IT expert V Thiyagarajan, the search for someone skilled in geriatric care was trying. There were not enough of them. Here was a business opportunity.

He wanted to personalise healthcare and deliver it at the doorstep. What if nurses, medicines and the required equipment are sent to homes for a monthly charge?

A market waiting to be taken is the aging and the terminally ill – both hold the promise of long-term business. With a growing Indian Diaspora in the West, there is a large set in India requiring assistance in the evening of its life.

As this idea took shape in early 2009, Thiyagarajan was running Sybrant Technologies, a Chennai-headquartered software company providing mobility solutions. Still holding majority equity in the tech firm, he shifted focus to the new thought. His wife, a general physician, agreed to head operations while he took up business expansion and recruitment. The company would charge ₹14,000 a month for 12-hour care every day. The other service is the “retainer model,” in which a fee of ₹3,000 will deliver a trained nurse once a week for gauging blood pressure, glucose (sugar) levels and other key parameters. Medicinal expenses apply separately but the company will not take any margin. “For someone with little experience in this field, I surprised myself by going ahead. We named it India Home Health Care,” says Thiyagarajan, Founder and Director, India Home Health Care.

Two months passed, and six nurses got on the payroll. There were no takers because there was little evidence of reliability.

Thiyagarajan approached hospitals to help spread the word. Five hospitals, including Dr Mehta’s Hospitals Pvt Ltd and Fortis Malar Hospital, agreed to recommend. “For the hospitals, our business proved an effective way to free up beds.”

Sameer Mehta, Director at Dr Mehta’s Hospitals, came in as a strategic investor, and clinical management expert Anitha Arockiasamy agreed to join in. After one year of operations and 65 clients in Chennai, a tie up with Columbia Asia Hospitals took the business to Bangalore.

Two years later, reality struck in the form of heavy employee attrition and dwindling quality of services. Nurses turned out to be brand carriers in this business. Their professionalism will decide the fate of his venture. Accompanying a nurse to the home of an elderly couple, he found there was not much of medical treatment besides washing them up, administering medicines and making sure they had their food.

A major staffing overhaul followed. Instead of relying on qualified nurses, the company took in more of “medical caretakers” – teenagers with tenth or twelfth grade certificates willing to take on jobs after three months of nursing training. Only 10 per cent of the staff are now registered nurses.

Funding troubles took a backseat when, eight months ago, Philadelphia-based Bayada Home Health Care agreed to infuse $10 million for operational expansion and train the nurses. The agreement is expected to open up the Non-Resident Indian market in the US for India Home Health Care.

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