Marketing Assignment

Covid-19 and its Implication to

Healthcare Industry and Services
SUBMITTED TO
Dr. Achint Nigam
Assistant Professor
SUBMITTED BY: GROUP 6

ARAVIND. R 2019H1490822P
MEGHA GANDHI 2019H1490834P
NANDIGAM SANDEEP KUMAR 2019H1490854P

RADHIKA GUPTA 2019H1490844P

TATHAGATA. B 2019H1490833P

Department of Management
 BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Introduction

“The Basics” is a chain of Hospitals and Healthcare service provider. “The Basics” run
by CEO Divyanka Paul is the second largest hospital chain in India. Spread over 4
metros, and 22 other prime cities like (Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, Vadodara e.tc) the
hospital has 38 hospitals with a 5500 bed capacity overall second to that of Apollo which
has 7000 beds.

Given the situation of coronavirus, we are seeing a huge influx of patients in our hospitals
and huge demand for our healthcare services is also seeing a huge spike in demand, more
than what was forecasted for this month.

The news has been filled with information on Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19),
China and Italy have completely closed borders to contain the spread of the disease.
WHO has declared the disease as Pandemic as on 11-March 2020.

Current Situation

Last night the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) touched the bear market level. As
per official records globally as on March 20 2:55 GMT 126,300 cases were recorded of
which 4,633 people have died and 68285 people have been recovered. Considering the
Indian scenario 62 cases have been recorded of which 58 cases are active and 4 have been
recovered.
Source of live data https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

As per official forecast urban hospitals are expected to have a 30% increase in number of
patients for COVID-19. Given the current situation our overall revenue is expected to
grow for this week, however it could turn dangerously bad too quick after that. As of now
we have not had any confirmed cases of covid-19 in our hospitals, however we have over
1000 cases of fever and flu related symptoms among our patients and are being tested for
covid-19.

Market Implication
This season there is no need for ads for our hospital businesses as the demand is expected
to more than what can be estimated. However, promotion for our healthcare services
segment needs to be given attention, to promote visibility of our household testing kits
and services.
It is estimated about 10% of the people who got COVID-19 need hospitalisation
(https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/10/covid-19-gets-bad-are-we-prepared-for-triage/), going by the estimate, for an
population of a metropolitan city like India, with 10 million population (2011 Census),
the estimated hospitalisation requirement is 1 Million, Which is more than the current
limits of the Industry. Given that there will be more influx of people from rural to urban
seeking medical facilities, the estimates are going to be blown away.

Keeping this in mind, it is advisable for us, to promote our at home health services to the
urban masses, so that we could cut down on the number of patients availing our hospital
services and improve our band visibility, as an enterprise that is concerned about its
customers and allied wellbeing.

Strategies

1.Spread Awareness

Being a leading healthcare service provider, our initial strategy would be to increase
awareness among people about different symptoms of COVID-19. Aim would be to
encourage people not to visit nearest hospitals but to get treated/ checked at home. This
would help early detection, reduce spread of disease, reduce mortality and decrease
patient count at hospitals.
Awareness drive is aimed through social media, print media and television advertisement
through which the majority of urban population can be reached. To create advertisement
a top advertising house would be contacted in Delhi to get the print and advertisement
ready within 2 days.

2. Pricing

With increase in volume of patients the consultation fee would be reduced by 30%. The
rate would be less than what Apollo hospital is charging presently.
This move is important to get a competitive advantage and reinforce “The Basics”
commitment of improving health of citizens at affordable prices in the hands of world
class doctors.
3. Response Team

With the increase in customers a specialised response team must be ready. The team size
will vary from city to city proportional to forecsted patient visiting. Team would consist
of a senior doctor, two middle level doctors and nurses. A special training is to be given
to this team. This team would only look at COVID-19 patients.

4. Points of Entry

Hospitals will have a seperate line for patients coming for COVID-19 check up. All
patients are expected to wear their own masks if not available, the same would be
provided at the gate entrance ( this would be charged in the hospital bill). Patients in this
line would be disbursed faster to various doctors.

5. Supply Chain Management

Procurement of essentials medical equipment and medicines has to be faster with increase
in demand. This can be done by having short term contracts with national level suppliers.
Inventory capacity for such items must be increased within hospital space to adhere to
emergency.

6. Employee Welfare

As the time calls for working round the clock , HR team is advised to come up with a
revised timetable for doctors and staff. Also revised overtime rules and compensation to
be devised to ensure high quality service round the clock. This is expected to increase our
cost of operations, but given the situation, having the best response time and valued
services around the clock in this industry is going to give us brand equity over other
brands. The rise of cost incurred due to increasing the scope of operating can be
compensated by the reduced spending in formal marketing over the course of the next
few months.