Bumrungrad Hospital - Effective Marketing and Distribution Strategy - Case Study Example

Bumrungrad Hospital Name: Executive Summary This paper has been divided into several sections, which have helped in illustrating various issues regarding Bumrungard in Thailand. Bumrungard Hospital is a multiple-specialty medical facility. Trends in service delivery were prompted by the South-East Asia currency crisis, which saw mass movement from private hospitals, which were expensive compared to what was being offered by government hospitals. Bumrungrad took advantage of the 11 September 2001 attack in the USA so that it could augment its customer base. Bumrungrad instituted a number of measures that could woo the Islamic community to their hospital facility. Bumrungrad attracted the Middle East market. The hospital facility had Hospital 2000, a medical information system, which facilitated transactions with customers from various nationalities because customers could register at Bumrungrad website and could also choose to communicate in a language that they feel comfortable. The service profit chain offers relationships between various factors, which lead to profitability of a specific service that includes profitability, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, customer retention, customer productivity and efficiency. Most of their customers enjoyed their services, since they were beyond what their competitors were offering. Therefore, the hospital retained most of its customers. The facility also had innovative features, for instance, Kid’s Village provided various medical services in a kid-friendly environment. 1) Introduction Bumrungard Hospital is a multiple-specialty medical facility based in Bangkok, Thailand. It was established in 1980 as a 200-bed facility. It is the largest private healthcare facility in Southeast Asia. It is a popular destination for medical tourism. The facility is managed by experienced administrators from Thailand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. Trends in service delivery were prompted by the South-East Asia currency crisis, which saw mass movement from private hospitals, which were expensive compared to what was being offered by government hospitals. Bumrungrad ensured that it only delivered its services to Christians, but also to Islam. The facility instituted various strategies that could entice wider Islamic community. Bumrungrad had the option of lowering its prices so that it is at the same level with the government owned facilities. Bumrungrad believed in the cycle of success since they adhered to long-term perspective on financial efficiency and they sought economic prosperity since they invested heavily in personnel to develop a cycle success. Bumrungrad had an international ambience, which helped it to attract people from different countries in the world. The facility should have lowered the rates for its citizens. Lowering the rates for the citizens would imply that they would get more local customers compared to when they have high rates. 2) Question 1 (Demonstrate a clear understanding of the topic area (using theory) and apply to the case study.) The export promotion department of Thailand commerce industry organized a road show and the Bumrungrad actively participated in an international event. Around this time, Thailand started promoting medical tourism as an ‘export’ product (Watson & Stolley, 2012). The health facility introduced a full package of health care services. The new package was inclusive of medical charges, airfare as well as accommodation and the whole cost was one-third of that in hospitals in the UK. Bumrungrad targeted countries that had high health care costs and low insurance cost. Bumrungrad targeted countries such as the USA and Japan by providing services that are not factored in their medical insurance, for instance, laser surgery, cosmetic surgery, dental and skin treatment, skin resurfacing as well as comprehensive checkups. Bumrungrad took advantage of the 11 September 2001 attack in the USA so that it could augment its customer base (Mortensen, 2008; Hunt, 2013). Bumrungrad took the advantage since many people from the Middle East as well as other Islamic nations were indeterminate of going to Europe and the USA for medical treatment since they were not sure if they would be treated well. Bumrungrad instituted a number of measures that could woo the Islamic community to their hospital facility. Bumrungrad staff was trained on the fundamentals of Islam (Chen & Ong, 2010). Bumrungrad staff greeted Islamic patients, according to the traditional style. Bumrungrad opened the first Halal kitchen in the hospital facility and it served Muslims religiously acceptable halal food. Bumrungrad also had an Islamic prayer room and all the rooms had a prayer rug as well as a sign pointing towards Mecca. In 2001, the facility attracted 10,000 patients from the Middle East (Hamdan, 2012). The facility opened an International Patient Centre (IPC). The IPC was instrumental in the provision of services such as insurance, language translation, procuring visas, interaction with doctors from their original country as well as repatriation. The facility tied up with Mandra Spa so that it could offer relaxation programs that complemented medical treatment at the facility. These initiatives primarily targeted Japanese patients who preferred natural treatment. The facility attracted the western market by developing a Western-style ambience. The hospital lobby resembled a five-star hotel that had ceilings that were two floors high, plush sofas, armchairs as well as teak pillars. Its hosts were familiar with various foreign languages. The lobby catered for citizens from different nationalities, this was one of the causes of attraction to Bumrungrad. The international ambience at the facility was aimed at ensuring that patients visiting the hospital feel relaxed. Bumrungrad’s Hospital 2000 facilitated dealings with customers from different nationalities since customers could register at the facility’s website and could also choose to communicate in a language that they feel comfortable. 2) Question 2 (Demonstrate a clear understanding of the topic area (using theory) and apply to the case study.) Bumrungrad attracted the Middle East market. Bumrungrad instituted a number of measures that could woo the Islamic community to their hospital facility. Bumrungrad staff was trained on the fundamentals of Islam. Bumrungrad staff greeted Islamic patients, according to the traditional style. Bumrungrad opened the first Halal kitchen in the hospital facility and it served Muslims religiously acceptable halal food. Bumrungrad also had an Islamic prayer room and all the rooms had a prayer rug as well as a sign pointing towards Mecca. In 2001, the facility attracted 10,000 patients from the Middle East. The facility opened an International Patient Centre (IPC). The IPC was instrumental in the provision of services such as insurance, language translation, procuring visas, interaction with doctors from their original country as well as repatriation (Woodman, 2012). The facility tied up with Mandra Spa so that it could offer relaxation programs that complemented medical treatment at the facility. These initiatives primarily targeted Japanese patients who preferred natural treatment. In 2003, Bumrungrad opened Kid’s village. Kid’s Village provided various medical services in a kid-friendly environment since its walls was painted with blue skies, clouds and the treatment rooms and entrance center were very colorful, this would help children feel relaxed. The facility had a Well-Baby center that had a separate entrance as well as a waiting room for children with immunizations as well as those who were likely to be sick. Bumrungrad ‘Kid-Zone” had an edutainment center that had mega screen theater that was dedicated to children’s programs. The hospital lobby resembled a five-star hotel that had ceilings that were two floors high, plush sofas, armchairs as well as teak pillars. Bumrungrad hostesses were familiar with several foreign languages. Bumrungrad lobby catered for citizens from diverse nationalities, this was one of the causes of attraction to Bumrungrad. The hospital had an international ambience, which could make everyone feel at home when visiting the facility. The facility treated their patients in quick time, unlike other facilities that would delay, at Bumrungrad it would take about 45 minutes and you will be through with everything. Bumrungrad also had internet cafes patients and visitors could browse the internet any time. The hospital facility had Hospital 2000, a medical information system, which facilitated transactions with customers from various nationalities because customers could register at Bumrungrad website and could also choose to communicate in a language that they feel comfortable. At Bumrungrad, the women’s center had various services that were dedicated to women. These facilities entailed a health-screening program, a consultation clinic with private facilities and full obstetrics facilities, including birthing rooms, labor rooms, nursery as well as intensive care unit for the newborn babies. Bumrungrad had a helicopter that would airlift patients with extreme emergencies. 4. SERVICES PERSONAL The service profit chain offers relationships between various factors, which lead to profitability of a specific service that includes profitability, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, customer retention, customer productivity and efficiency. Bumrungrad was facing stiff competition from their counterparts in the government sector since most of their customers moved to the government facility after Thailand was hit by the South-East Asian currency crisis. This prompted Bumrungrad to develop effective marketing strategy that could help them be competitive. During those hard economic times, Bumrungrad decided to capitalize on foreign nations that had high medical costs and low insurance cost, by doing so, they would be able to have a customer base since their medical costs were not the highest in the world, and therefore they develop an effective marketing strategy that would make them game-changers. Bumrungrad introduced a full package of health care service, which was inclusive of medical charges, airfare as well as accommodation. The whole cost was one-third of what hospitals in UK provided. Bumrungrad also used the same strategy to capture other market in the world. After the 11 September attacks, most patients from the Middle East were not sure whether they could be attended when they go the USA. Bumrungrad took advantage of this and introduced features that would entice the Islam community. Eventually, they had many people visiting the facility from the USA. The facility managed to retain most of these people visiting the facility from the Middle East. The facility also attracted customers from various foreign nations. Most of their customers enjoyed their services, since they were beyond what their competitors were offering. Therefore, the hospital retained most of its customers. The facility also had innovative features, for instance, Kid’s Village provided various medical services in a kid-friendly environment. Bumrungrad’s Hospital 2000 facilitated dealings with customers from different nationalities. The medical information system software helped in ensuring that they promptly attend to their customers (Andrews & Siengthai, 2009). Cycles of mediocrity are mostly found in big organizations and bureaucratic type, which are a typical representation of state monopolies, industrial and controlled oligopoly and cartels. Organizations with this type of cycle do not have incentives to improve on efficiency and in most cases, implementation of the innovative policies as well as practices in the management personnel are blocked owing to risk conflicts with the trade unions. Bumrungrad did not exhibit this type of cycle since it had innovative structures in place that wooed many foreign customers and also had effective enforcement of its policies. Bumrungrad believed in the cycle of success since they adhered to long-term perspective on financial efficiency and they sought economic prosperity since they invested heavily in personnel to develop a cycle success. 5. SERVICE DELIVERY Initially Bumrungrad had a common distribution strategy. However, after the South-East Asian currency crisis, which prompted most of its patients to move from the private facility to state-owned since they were cheaper prompted Bumrungrad to devise a new strategy that would help them be competitive amidst stiff competition from state-owned healthcare facilities. Bumrungrad had the option of lowering its prices so that it is at the same level with the government owned facilities but this was not the option since it would imply that the facility would have to overlook various important elements in health care and they would also not satisfy their customers since. Consequently, this prompted Bumrungrad to devise a strategy that would help them sell their services effectively. Bumrungrad devised an aggressive marketing strategy that mainly focused on foreign countries that had high medical costs and low insurance cost. This was the best strategy for Bumrungrad bearing in mind that it was a private facility and it had to be competitive in a country that had low medical cost being offered by the government. For instance, facility introduced a full package of health care services. The package was inclusive of medical charges, airfare as well as accommodation and the whole cost was one-third of that in hospitals in the UK. This is a good strategy of getting the foreign market since they facility will provide better services at a cost that is lower than what is being provided in the patient's home country. Bumrungrad ensured that it only delivered its services to Christians, but also to Islam. The facility instituted various strategies that could entice the wide Islamic community. Its staff was trained on the fundamentals of Islam. Its staff greeted Islamic patients in traditional style. Bumrungrad opened a Halal kitchen in the facility and it served Muslims religiously acceptable halal food. The facility also had an Islamic prayer room and all the rooms had a prayer rug as well as a sign pointing towards Mecca. Trend in service delivery was prompted by the South-East Asia currency crisis, which saw mass movement from private hospitals, which were expensive compared to what was being offered by government hospitals. This prompted Bumrungrad to change its service delivery strategy and it achieved this by courting the foreign market and also by improving its facility. This resulted in the facility getting many customers, which directly resulted in higher profit margin. Shortly, other healthcare facilities imitated Bumrungrad while some improved on their facilities to be at par with Bumrungrad. The current trend is that delivery of services has expanded to areas that had not been exploited before this includes ensuring that different religious faiths are served by the facility since they instituted measures that would ensure that Muslims are also served in the facility. 6) SUMMARY The South-East Asia crisis helped in shaping Bumrungrad’s destiny since it was after this that the facility lost most of its customers to government-owned health facilities since they had lower prices. This prompted the facility to develop strategies that could help it get more customers. The facility developed an effective marketing strategy that would help it become competitive. The marketing strategy entailed capitalizing on the foreign markets. This was an important strategy since its rates were not affordable to most of the local citizens. Furthermore, its rates were lower compared to what was being offered in other countries like the UK, for instance, it introduced a full package of health care services. This package was inclusive of medical charges, airfare as well as accommodation and the total cost was one-third of that in hospitals in the UK. Bumrungrad introduced various important innovative features that saw it become a market leader. For instance, the facility provided airlifting services when a patient required urgent attention. References Andrew, T & Siengthai, S. (2009). The changing face of management in Thailand. New York: Routledge. Chen, N & Ong, A. (2010). Asian biotech: Ethics and communities of fate. New York: Duke University Press. Hamdan, S. (2012). Thailand profits from health care to Arabs patients. The New York Times. Retrieved on 25 January 2014 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/world/middleeast/09iht-m09-gulf-medical.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Hunt, A. (March, 2013). Inbound medical tourism and visa reform: how increasing accessibility for foreign patients can decrease American healthcare costs. Huston Journal of International Law, 35(1) 103-137. Mortensen, J. (2008). International trade in health services assessing the trade and the trade offs. Retrieved on 25 January 2014 from http://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/44694/1/568771478.pdf Watson, S & Stolley, K. (2012). Medical Tourism. Bangkok: ABC-CLIO. Woodman, J. (2012). Patients Beyond Borders Focus On: Sime Darby. New York: Healthy Travel Media. Read More