Patient Relationship Management: Emerging EDGE in Medical

INTRODUCTION

Health is a fundamental right of a Human and being healthy is the worldwide social issue and goal to be accomplished. It plays a vital role in fulfilling the basic human needs and to attain the status of a better quality of life. In many developing countries improving the quality of growth is an important goal. The key factors for the development of quality of growth are Better health, education, equal and wider job opportunities to all, trustworthy and transparent people‘s intuition, sustainable and cleaner environment, dignity, and self-esteem and life security. Marketing is one of the important things in retaining customer in every field just because of customer all the business exist. Now a day many health organizations are adopting the concept of patient relationship management as strategy of their hospitals. Basically PRM involves use of technology in organizing, directing and automating the hospital actives. A hospital involves maintain record of patients who visited the hospitals, interacting with patients online, tracking the health of the patients online and maintain a healthy relationship with the patients for a positive word of mouth. In the field of medical care one of the important aspects is how to manage relations between the doctor and patients. For having a harmonious relationship a healthcare providers leads to maintain loyal customer, greater mutual understanding, trust, patient satisfaction, and patient involvement in decision making. As compared to other business the healthcare industry they need more to satisfy their patients and the field poses more challenges as compare to others. Value creation is important in every business but it case of medical sector Patients place a value on the services provided by hospitals according to quality of outcome, quality of service, and price. The value of each layer depends on how well they are performed. When a healthcare provider cannot achieve its strategic objectives, it needs to reengineer their activities to fit business processes with strategy. A hospital needs to control the stress of the patients as each and every individual of the hospital should be concern about the health issues of the patients. The major factor to be considered while preparing Patient relationship management practices are the quality of outpatient, inpatient and emergency services. The entire hospital staff, should be proficient in CRM practices, and should be a friend, philosopher and guide to the patients, whose welfare, and should be their prime concern. It is mandatory for the hospital members to have cordial doctor-patient interface and a durable hospital-patient relationship. The hospital must have prominent number of staff in the hospital so that each and every patient should be attended properly. Other factors should be also considered like proper beds for patients, effective medical facilities, ambulance services and proper communication channel for patients. The patients wants various kinds of services from hospitals like Comfortable lobby seating, Adequate space in patient rooms, Attached toilets in the patient rooms with a geyser facility, Pure filter water availability, Timings to suit their requirements, Proximity, central location, Clean environment, Lift services and Laundry services.

1. To study how patient relationship management helps in improving patient satisfaction. 2. To highlights the main drawbacks of the healthcare industry.

Source of data: The study is based on the secondary data collected from research articles, journals and News articles and reports.

First impression is the last impression; this statement is also true in case of the hospital industry. When a patient visits the hospital it is the environment over there which attracts the patients. The hospital should focus on the special effect which is given to the mind of patient which put a longer effect. The hospital should provide eminent services and services must be different for each patient so they can feel the warmth of the caring. Now a day the hospitals are using various tactics for attracting and satisfying the patients like delivery of easy care to patients. Easy care suggests providing appointments at a level of ease and at a very short period of time like the same day or next day. Respecting a patient is more important than anything as they expect respect and polite treatment from the service provider and that makes them feel like part of it. If a sick person is shown an angry face than he would be very uncomfortable while talking to the service provider and a happy face makes the patient to recover soon. There should be smile on the face of the doctor or nurse who is giving treatment. There are many patients for whom privacy is the most concerned area handling delicate medical topics needs a high level of privacy and understanding with the patient which makes him or her feel comfortable. Speed is another issue some of the patients want faster treatment. Use of social media is an important aspect in the hospitals.

RURAL SECTOR IS BENG NEGLECTED: India is suffering from many problems since the ancient urban areas. We cannot say there are no hospitals or public hospitals in the rural areas but they have to face a visible biasness. According to health information 31.5% of hospitals and 16% hospital beds are situated in rural areas where 75% of total population resides. Doctors are not willing to work in the rural sector. India is a place where doctors are the factor who plays a role of heavy character on whom everybody is dependent. But in countries like China there is healthcare system dependent on paramedical (like bare-footed doctors in China) to strengthen the periphery.

INADEQUATE OUTLAY FOR HEALTH:

According to the National Health Policy 2002, the Govt. contribution to health sector constitutes only 0.9 percent of the GDP. This is quite insufficient. In India, public expenditure on health is 17.3% of the total health expenditure while in China, the same is 24.9% and in Sri Lanka and USA, the same is 45.4 and 44.1 respectively. This is the main cause of low health standards in the country.

IMPORTANCE TO CULTURE SYSTEM:

The healthcare system of India is totally dependent on others as it is like imported from the foreign culture. There are no original roots of the healthcare system of India. It has been said the mostly service are based on the urban hospitals. The services provided have been at the cost of providing comprehensive primary health care to all. It has completely neglected preventive, pro-motive, rehabilitative and public health measures.

SOCIETY:

The rate at which healthcare services developed in India are highly imbalanced. The areas in our country which are Rural, hilly and remote areas are under served and if we compare them with urban areas and cities health facilities are well developed. The SC/ST and the poor people are far away from modern health service. LACK OF PROFESSIONALS IN INDIA: The basic problem in medical sector is lack personnel in India which includes Doctors, Nurses etc. In 1999-2000, while there were only 5.5 doctors per 10,000 population in India, the same is 25 in the USA and 20 in China. Similarly the number of hospitals and dispensaries is insufficient in comparison to our vast population. mainly in the field of drugs and vaccines for tropical diseases which are normally neglected by international pharmaceutical companies on account of their limited profitability potential.

EXPENSIVE HEALTH SERVICE:

It is very difficult for the common man to afford the medical services in India due to their expensive nature. Health services especially allopathic are quite expensive. Prices of various essential drugs have gone up. Therefore more emphasis should be given to the alternative systems of medicine. Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathy systems are less costly and will serve the common man in better way. Concluding the health system has many problems. These problems can be overcome by effective planning and allocating more funds.

Patient Relationship management is the concept which is emerging in the field of medical industry. The concept basically focus on maintain the relationship with the patients and keeping a long term relation. Patient relationship management used various strategies for satisfying the patients and providing them a homely environment. Basically it focuses on the better communication between the patient and the doctor. Each and every member from chief medical officer to ward boy everybody must involve in the following patient relationship management strategies. In India the healthcare industry is not flourished in the rural sector so attention must be paid more over it.

1. Anshari M., Almunawar, N, M. (2011). ―Evaluating CRM Implementation in Healthcare Organisation‖ International Conference on Economics and and Business Information. 2. Dash, K. S., & Panda, K. A. (2010). Managing Customer Relationships In Private Health Care Facilities - A Study With Reference To Greater Noida City Of Uttar Pradesh. Serbian Journal of Management, pp. 27-42.

Research Scholar, Institute of Management Studies and Research (IMSAR), MDU Rohtak