From centralising operations and shifting existing talent to upcoming centres, hospital chains are optimising available resources to beat the labour crunch.
Apollo Hospitals has come up with a strategy wherein 10 per cent of its staff requirements at new hospitals will be met through existing centres. (Apollo plans to set up around seven hospitals with total bed strength of 2,400 by 2014; manpower requirement is in the ratio of 4-5 a bed.)
Smart studies have shown it is easier to get staff to an existing hospital than a new hospital, says Mr Jacob, Chief People Officer, Apollo Hospitals.
“Medical talent prefers established units, where they can handle a good case mix; volumes are more here. There is also reluctance for new-comers to work in tier 2 and 3 cities. Attracting consultants in small towns is a major challenge; and unlike the big cities, manpower skill is limited here,” says Mr Jacob. Shifting trained staff to new units also has a rub-off effect on newcomers, making their learning curve faster and easier, he adds.
For existing staff, working at a new centre also proves to be a “challenging” exercise. While salary hikes are short-term incentives, the “long-term game changer” is career progression, says Mr Jacob. This is especially important in an industry where attrition is as high as 25 per cent among resident doctors and nurses.
Fortis Hospitals is trying to “free up” doctors and nurses, who have become a rare commodity these days, by training a set of paramedics who can take on lower level tasks which doctors and nurses have traditionally performed.
For instance, Fortis is freeing nurses from tasks such as bed-making and passing them to people at the lower-level. ‘Physician assistants' are taking over paper-work from junior doctors. ‘Emergency medical technicians' are being trained in resuscitation, ambulance pick-up and safe transfer to the hospital, tasks which MBBS doctors were doing largely till now. (Physician assistants and emergency technicians have to just be graduates, preferably.)
“We are looking at bringing in more and more paramedics into our talent pool so that junior doctors can be freed up to lessen the labour crunch in critical operations,” says Dr Lloyd Nazareth, COO, Fortis Hospitals.
Technology is also coming in handy for hospitals short of trained consultants. For instance, Columbia Asia Hospitals has connected its Bangalore hospital to satellite hospitals in Mysore, Patiala and Delhi through a high-tech system. “Patients' parameters are monitored at Yeshwantpur (in Bangalore); doctors here confer with satellite doctors constantly through a webcam,” says Mr Tufan Ghosh, CEO, Columbia Asia.
Hospital chains are also exploring telemedicine wherein work-loads from other centres are passed on to the main centre.