Hospitals, profitability and patient welfare

As India continues its march towards expansion of private, for-profit, tertiary healthcare institutions, this article by Kurt D. Grote, Edward H. Levine, and Paul D. Mango in the McKinsey Quarterly is likely to be of interest (you would need to fill in a registration form to enter the site).

The analysis in this piece about the future of US Hospitals in the 21st century explains the philosophy that guides healthcare institutions in scenarios other than those based on human welfare and right to medical care (which are accepted and outlined in international covenants).

There is worry expressed in the article that hospitals in the US are having to cater to people who may not be solvent and to others whose bills are indirectly paid by hard-bargaining governments that may not care much about the hospital's profits. Their competitiveness has also been compromised, we are told to believe, because philanthropists have been giving money (and thus blunted profit-generating skills) and employers insured employees (rather than allow the hospitals to come up with 'innovations' that skim off funds from the wealthier among them).

In this analysis, patients are "health care consumers" and the challenge before hospitals is to reinvent themselves on the model of leading retailers, who know what the customers want and are willing to provide it!

If this is the vision that is going to guide the McKinsey-inspired Public Health Foundation of India, then we know what to expect.