The Hindu Business Line : For healthy clicks

Hospitals smitten by the IT bug and digging deep into their pockets have opened up newer possibilities for Indian software product makers who see huge opportunities in the healthcare sector.

The recent spurt in the number of corporate hospitals, efforts to develop India as a medical tourism hub and increasing competition among corporate hospitals to attract and retain patients have created a huge market. The spread in health insurance and medical travel has been an important factor as well.

“Healthcare is one of the fastest growing industries in India with heavy investments,” says Vamsi Chandra Kasivajjala, Head, Healthcare Product Management, Sobha Renaissance Information Technology Pvt Ltd.

The Indian healthcare industry is consolidating, he says, and large hospital chains are expanding their presence. These corporate hospitals are the primary customer for technology.

Earlier, most hospitals would buy solutions for particular segments such as billing or finance and rarely use a complete Hospital Information System (HIS). But that is changing now, he says.

According to Prasenjit Lahiri, Head, Business Operations, Wipro Healthcare Ltd, the IT market in the healthcare segment could be pegged at around Rs 500 crore. It is expected to touch Rs 900 crore in the next two to three years.

Kasivajjala says a Hospital Information System helps cut labour costs, which is about 40 per cent to 50 per cent of the total expenditure in a hospital.

It increases operational efficiency, revenue optimisation and performance management as well. The technology also helps produce better billing and insurance reports, bringing down the rejection of insurance claims. This helps a hospital retain and attract patients, he says.

Lahiri emphasises that IT improves the patient experience. For instance, it helps bring down the time taken to discharge patients.

Dr Nagendra Swamy, Director, Medical Services & Post Graduate Studies, Manipal Hospital, feels it is easier for a hospital with good IT installations to get accreditions. And accreditions are important for medical travel. Also, the Hospital Information System helps to analyse data, thereby making clinical research easier.

But most importantly, the technology ensures greater patient safety by minimising error, says Dr Swamy.

It enables the hospital to maintain patient data on a digital platform, making it easy to access and disseminate the information. “This is especially important if a patient is being treated by multiple doctors. It makes the process seamless,” he says.

Different doctors can check on drugs prescribed to a patient, thereby reducing the chance of drug overlap or contradiction. Also, the doctors are able to find out if a patient is allergic to certain drugs. All this can be done at the touch of a button, minimising the chance of errors and the time taken, he says.

Data can be sent easily to hospitals around the world. Therefore, if a patient needs treatment while travelling, the concerned doctors can access his medical history.

Dr Swamy says the HIS has minimised errors in the operation theatre as well. For instance, after Manipal Hospital implemented the technology, it has bar-coded patient ID. This has cut down on errors — operating upon the wrong patient or performing the wrong operation, which are common errors, worldwide.

Manipal Hospital has spent about Rs 6-7 crore on IT. Another Rs 5 crore has been spent on hardware.

Lahiri of Wipro says IT spending for greenfield hospitals is about 3-4 per cent of total revenue. In other large hospitals, it is about 2 per cent, and in mid-sized hospitals, about 1.5 per cent. The sector has picked up pace in the last year.

Wipro has been successful in the smaller towns and cities as well, he says. “About 25 per cent of our 40 new customers in 2007 are from non-metro cities.” The company also has customers in West Asia and in the Asia-Pacific region.

Shobha Renaissance, which has been in this sector since about July 2004, says the Aditya Memorial Hospital in Pune and the Satya Sai hospital in Bangalore are among its clients.

Wipro Infotech has installed the HIS in six hospitals run by the Delhi Municipal Corporation and also in eight Wokhardt hospitals. The company has the Wipro HIS light range of products for smaller hospitals, says Lahiri.

Ravi K, Managing Director, Gray Cells Consulting Pvt Ltd, a Bangalore-based company, which chiefly focuses on smaller hospitals and clinics, says his company is trying to make HIS more affordable.

Gray Cells is also trying to cut down the time taken to install the system in a hospital. At present, it takes about three months to implement the company’s HIS. It is working on reducing it to one month by making the product more open so that it does not need much customisation.

He says smaller hospitals do not have dedicated IT teams, which makes implementation difficult. Since the rate of attrition is quite high, it becomes difficult if the implementation period is too long.

Gray Cells, which began with ophthalmic products, has supplied software to Kasturba Medical College in Mangalore and the Manipal hospital in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Bangalore.

Ravi says the company has also developed an X-ray cassette reader, which is an alternative to the more expensive Picture Archival and Communications System (PACS) used to capture, store, distribute, and display medical images.

shamik.paul@thehindu.co.in

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