Stephen Musings

Not on my merit but by His Grace,

KERALA HOSPITALS COMPETE FOR PATIENTS’ ATTENTION

On Sunday, February 25th, 2024, the front page of Malayala Manorama Daily carried a quarter-page advertisement featuring a hospital in Central Travancore alongside Asset Homes’ latest project. This hospital, established merely five years ago with the backing of the local Catholic community, proudly extolled its Orthopedic department as a Center Of Excellence through this advertisement. Within the same edition, a one-sixth-page black and white advertisement commemorated the silver jubilee of a private hospital near Kottayam.

On Sunday, March 10, 2024, the front-page advertisement of Manorama Daily featured the inauguration of a renovated Gold Jewelry store in Kottayam by a Malayalam film star. The next two full pages were advertisements for a modernized Multi-specialty hospital by a corporate in Adoor, to be inaugurated by four Kerala Ministers, an MP, and four MLAs.

These exemplify the prevailing trend in Kerala healthcare advertising / promotion.

Despite the digital age’s dominance, where conventional products and services migrate to targeted digital media, the healthcare sector still heavily relies on traditional advertising formats to reach patients. Apart from newspapers, the primary printed medium, magazines also witness substantial utilization by this sector. Glossy magazines like Vanitha routinely feature at least a one-page colour advertisement from a hospital and one to three pages of paid features (‘advertorials’) spotlighting hospitals. Hospitals secure publicity, the fourth leg of the traditional promotion mix, by organizing newsworthy events to be aired by media channels.

Venturing outdoors, one encounters towering billboards lining public roads, beckoning attention to various departments such as cardiac, orthopedic, fertility, maternity, . . . of different hospitals. Collaborations with the Public Works Department of the government led to hospital names prominently displayed at crucial junctions and signboards at frequent intervals, indicating distances to specific hospitals.

FM radio, the modern adaptation of traditional indoor media, now transcends outdoors, catering primarily to a moving vehicle audience. Hospital commercials frequently punctuate FM radio broadcasts.

Social media has emerged as a pivotal platform for hospitals. While dancing doctors and nurses showcasing hospital infrastructure once went viral, recent trends feature singing nurses, festive decorations, and celebrations.

The competitive landscape of the healthcare sector, whether driven by religious communities or corporations, necessitates such promotional strategies to attract and retain sufficient patient numbers to sustain operations and infrastructure. The poaching of established doctors by new hospitals has become commonplace. Additionally, hospitals continuously diversify into new departments such as oncology (cancer care), palliative care, trauma care, robotic surgery, . . . to meet evolving demands. However, there seems to be a neglect of geriatric care (care for the elderly).

Kerala is increasingly identified as a state with ‘old people’ due to the emigration of young people, a fact reinforced day by day. Investments in old age homes have become a lucrative business opportunity.

The promotional tactics employed by the healthcare sector prompt questions about whether they inadvertently brand Kerala as the land of the sick.

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9 responses to “KERALA HOSPITALS COMPETE FOR PATIENTS’ ATTENTION”

  1. Binu Joy Avatar
    Binu Joy

    A good chronicle of the state of marketing in today’s healthcare. I read it with mixed feelings, having been in hospitals of different persuasions over the last 20 to 30 years.
    While it’s a fact that competition is way more than what used to be there earlier, the means of publicity are debatable. It’s useful to highlight new achievements and state of the art facilities …after all there is a public interest angle or benefit we can argue. Usage of celebrity endorsement and unconnected gimmickry is off putting.
    Of course, we don’t have actual data on whether it translates to better credibility among the public.

    While personally I am very put off by much of this , that’s largely based on what I consider poor taste. That sensibility is a residue of where I was trained and worked for a good part of my clinical life. The flip side is the nature of tertiary care or higher healthcare. The Cap Ex can be very high and even running costs require steady utilisation. And having worked or seen healthcare across the country, Kerala is ,in the matter of delivery, way ahead of the other states. So, it’s not all hot air when it comes to their advertisements.

    Finally, to your point of religious institution run hospitals. Do we really need to hold them to higher standards? I wouldn’t. In today’s world ,they made their choice the moment they decided to start new high end hospitals. Once they did, they have to swim with the tide.
    Now….whether they should get into high end care in the first place is a topic for another discussion.

    Reply
    1. stephen mathews Avatar
      stephen mathews

      Well stated response from a person who has seen the in and out of this sector. Number of questions emanate from this and should lead to discussion and decisions from those in control of this sector

      Reply
  2. Manuel Avatar
    Manuel

    Looking forward to the listing of Christian religious institutions in share markets.

    Reply
  3. kandankerry Avatar
    kandankerry

    Your observations are sharp and clear. I feel that hospitals resort to unethical promotion methods on account of very bad professional service rendered by them. If they are able to provide good service they don’t need such promotional gimmicks. To cover their lack of ethical medical service, they increase infrastructure and resort to other sales promotion methods.
    I have not seen any ads by Lissie hospital. They are confident of their service and staff and patients flock to their departments. Correct me if I am wrong.
    Anyway I am pf opinion that good hospitals do not need ads. Their ad is word of mouth.

    Reply
  4. Mathew Avatar
    Mathew

    Very good observation 👍

    Reply
  5. stephen mathews Avatar
    stephen mathews

    Joe A Scaria “Thank you Stephen Sir for another good article. The case of unfettered advertising by hospitals has actually been raised through a writ petition in the Supreme Court.

    It’s an irony that individual doctors are prohibited from advertising while hospitals can place ads featuring their star doctors.

    Kerala’s high morbidity and rising number of seniors point to a good harvest for the healthcare sector. For the same reason, hospital ad wars can be expected to be more intense going forward.”

    Reply
  6. prettyph Avatar
    prettyph

    Hospital ad wars have become the norm. Pretty much not a choice now.. if you don’t advertise.. you’re not really doing anything exciting.

    Similar to the trends of dishing out awards at the innumerable conclaves for hospital admin n management these days.

    Sometimes, the events organised look so gimmicky like fashion shows for expectant mothers etc..

    Inspite of all this.. there is still a large consumer block which sees beyond ads and Google reviews and go only by word of mouth recommendations and personal experiences.

    We live in exciting times 😄

    Reply
  7. ptanto Avatar
    ptanto

    Kerala has the highest doctor patient ratio in India, with a ratio of 4.2/ 1000, as against the WHO recommendations of 1/1000. We have almost 65 thousand doctors in the state, with another 3000 added to this pool every year. We have 46 medical colleges now in the state, against the 5 colleges we had when I did the MBBS. 16 thousand specialists and 6500 super specialists.  In every small town, one can see boards of super specialists of all kinds. We also have a very “literate and rights conscious society” who knows better than doctors, to choose which kind of doctor to see in case of an illness. We don’t follow the system of referral from a General Practitioner to the specialist to streamline and rationally use the services of specialists. And above all this, we have an aging population who gets money from children working abroad and can afford to get treatment from private hospitals.

    With facilities at governmental hospitals increasing at a steady pace, private hospitals are now struggling to make ends meet. Many of the hospitals cannot pay the doctors their salary in time. Not surprisingly, the hospitals resort to all kinds of advertisements. Till 1980s, advertisements for hospitals were considered unethical. Then the concept of medical service changed to ‘Health Care Industry”. Naturally, hospitals now follow industry standards and are entitled to make advertisements. There are ethical standards set for this, and they are not supposed to give misleading information about services that re not provided, or offer cures for illnesses which are not often possible. Doctors are prohibited from making individual promotions, but they bypass this hurdle though innocent looking media chats and write-ups in magazines and newspapers.

    In these circumstances, it is surprising to see more hospitals coming up in different parts of the state. Their financial sources have to be looked at seriously.

    Many religious establishments have now started hospitals on the lines of Christian Mission Hospitals. Older hospitals get patients because of their social standing, but they are also resorting to all sorts of business techniques by way of newspaper gimmicks. New hospitals have to place ads to make them known.

    On the other side, we see all kinds of ads from alternative medicines, offering cures for all the illnesses under the sun, about which, no one has complaints!

    Reply
    1. stephen mathews Avatar
      stephen mathews

      Thanks Dr PT Antony for a detailed comment to supplement my blog. This has enriched my musing

      Reply

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