Bridging the gap in Healthcare Access

Vaatsalya will bridge the healthcare gap in semi-urban and rural areas by creating India’s first network of healthcare providers focused on preventive primary and secondary care. The network has three components, a primary and secondary care hub, complemented by a set of spokes focused on daycare and prevention. The hubs offer medical services in the following specialties; Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Medicine , Surgery, Physiotherapy complemented by Laboratory and Diagnostics,
Nutrition & Exercise counseling, and Preventive Health Checks.

Our service motto is - the new FACE of healthcare, with emphasis on Friendly service, Affordablity, Cleanliness and Efficency.

The current model has evolved from our observations and experiences in the last year, in Hubli, Gadag and Karwar. We have noticed that niche specialized physiotherapy services like cerebral palsy rehabilitation allow us to establish a brand immediately. In all three locations, physiotherapy as a service was the prime attractor for patients, as these services are not available at other healthcare facilities. At the same time, we are not in direct competition with existing doctors and hence can ride on referrals from them, in addition to patients who walk in to our centres. Other advantages are that the cost of setting up these units is less compared to full fledged hospitals thus enabling a quick entry into a new location and further allows us to identify key physician partners in the area. One of the key challenges that we will face going forward is availability of doctors in all the locations that we are targeting and establishing a presence with the daycare units in these areas will allow us to develop relationships with local medical community, which we can then be leveraged to upgrade to bigger facilities. In addition, as these daycare centres are supported by our physiotherapy centres in the primary and secondary care unit, the daycare centres will act as referral centres to the bigger units.

Our three pronged marketing strategy involves
A. Community relations development by conducting health check camps
- Monthly camps in local areas to create awareness about Vaatsalya Hospitals and facilities
- Paid camps within the hospital camp wherein patients can avail high-end diagnostics and consultation at discounted prices
- Monthly camps in association with local non profit and community organizations to built organizational relationships, e.g. with rotary clubs, banks, self help groups

B. Targeted Marketing to the consumers
- Door to door marketing of preventive services through Arogya plans by marketing team
- Increase enrollment in Arogya plans across hospitals by targeting organizations. Currently in Hubli, we have created a special plan for small-scale industries, which will be extended to families living in the neighborhood
- Exclusive healthcare tie-ups with industries in the areas. E.g. we conduct weekly out patient consultation at Trident Industries in Tarihal industrial estate, and provide affordable service to about 150 employees of the company
- Working with organizations to identify consumers who will benefit from our services and conducting special camps for them. Cerebral palsy affected patients are one such group, that we will pro-actively seek out and arrange rehabilitation programs for them

C. Marketing to local physicians and tie-ups
- Build relationships with local physician community and offering complementary services like physiotherapy, nutritional counseling etc to their clients
- Leverage network with pharmacies and laboratories to attract local physicians to utilize Vaatsalya facilities

All Vaatsalya units are customer oriented with focus on prevention. In each unit our emphasis is on cleanliness, efficient and affordable care, and customer friendly staff encapsulated in our motto for individual hospitals – Vaatsalya, the new FACE of healthcare [Friendly, Affordable, Clean and Efficient]. We have been able to demonstrate, through number of referrals from existing patients, repeat visits and appreciation letters to our hospitals, that our emphasis on these four elements has enabled us to differentiate ourselves from other providers in the area.

In addition, our healthcare delivery services are coupled with innovative health plans to facilitate rapid market share capture. For instance, we are first company in the country to identify the opportunity with small scale industries, tailor a healthcare plan specifically tailored to their needs and work with the small scale industries association to engage the units and offer affordable medical care to the employees through a low monthly payment.

My skills are in the area of strategy, business development and building startup teams to execute large scale projects.

Before returning to India in 2002 to build healthcare ventures in India, I was part of the Human and Mouse Genome Projects at Celera Genomics, the company that sequenced the human genome and set a landmark in human history. I have to my credit three patents with the United States Patent Office (and two patent applications on file).

Before starting Vaatsalya, I was the Vice President for Business Development and Informatics at Triesta Sciences, a oncology research company focussed on developing new diagnostic and therapeutic products for cancer. As part of the core team, in India, I was responsible for building the team and was instrumental in developing clients around the world for collaboration with our team.

Vaatsalya will provide direct healthcare benefits to approximately 250000 people every year in semi-urban and rural areas through a network of 10 hospitals with a total investment of approximately 1.5 Million.

In addition, we bring preventive approach to healthcare and spread health awareness to approximately half a million people.