FACE OF MEDICAL TOURISM – INDIA

Gokul Prem Kumar

• Years of Experience: Total Healthcare 16 years and Medical Value Travel 7 years.
• Current Position: Continental Hospitals- A Gleneagles Facility at Hyderabad as Head International Marketing.

2. Marketing Leadership: I personally involve myself in as many outreaches and recruiting efforts as I can in creating a vibrant team as having the right people in the right place is like half job done. At Continental, we have one of the best teams catering to international patients with unwavering commitment and dedication.
   Everyone understands their role well and travels that extra mile in achieving common goals. I believe in empowering people and delegation for decision making and address issues at their level if there is no escalation needed for resolving patient concerns at a faster pace. They have been empowered to select the focus specialties for their markets to engage the doctors for conducting activities. This enables the team in building confidence to drive activities that impact the business positively.
3. Financial Stability: Having identified the potential markets based on our institutional strength our team could drive OPDs/CME programs, surgical workshops, and partnerships with universities across Africa has led us to double the revenue with sustained growth. The marketing campaigns in niche segments like “frameless stereotactic radiosurgery and radiotherapy in Neurosurgery” and Pain Management services led to the sustained growth of business in these domains. Apart from conventional marketing, we also partner with online portals for running our campaigns.
4. Competitive Advantage: Continental Hospitals have been accredited by Joint Commission International (JCI), USA – the highest body of accreditation in the world. Continental Hospitals is the first hospital in India, in the State of Telangana, and also the first multispecialty hospital (with Oncology) in the world to get the JCI accreditation in less than two years. It is also the first Hospital in the Indian subcontinent to obtain the “Gold Seal” in the first attempt. All this gets translated to say that our hospital brand is second to none with world-class infrastructure and state-of-the-art facilities catering to international patients.
5. Innovative Business Model: We have partnered with hospitals in East Africa and in Nigeria for capacity building in the areas of neurosciences and cardiothoracic surgery which has paved the way for a long-term association for mutual benefit. This exercise was very crucial in building trust for sustainable long-term business. To build on the momentum created we have opened our offices in countries like Somalia, Bangladesh, and Nigeria which acts as a catalyst in driving the business. These initiatives have resulted in enhancing our footprint in those markets and also making Continental a brand to reckon with for its advanced healthcare services.
6. Communication Strategy: JCI accreditation is one of the strongest USPs of Continental Hospitals and also being part of the world’s second-largest healthcare group gives us a competitive edge. Most of the new patients that visit Continental are referrals of previous patients who were treated in our hospital both from Africa and the Middle East. Word-of-mouth communication plays a vital role in these geographies because of culture and close family bonding. Our patients have been our ambassadors and they have been loyal all these years.

MEDICAL TOURISM | A MARKETING SPECIAL
We profile two professionals who have given a thrust to medical tourism
Page 32 | JANUARY 2018 | HEALTHCARE RADIUS