Death of the clinic- A new corporate hazard

Death of a clinic- The corporate impact on Healthcare Business

                                                                  

Normally the clinics in the city like Mumbai are moved to different places for many reason the commonest one is the need of larger space & not getting the extension on the lease. There is another possibility of doctor moving out of the town or getting too old to attend the clinic or due to some physical inability or ultimately the death of the doctor leads to closer of the clinic. This is absolutely an unorganized sector business. There is no legal protection either to the doctor or the staff working in the clinic.

Many of the staff members of the clinic are so associated as they are working there from the day of inception of the clinic. There skill sets are so developed to suit the activity of the clinic under that individual doctor.

But now a new set of clinics are being opened. these are owned by businessman & investors & doctors work there - There are many ways of doctor getting involved in the operation of the clinic but do not have the ownership. There is another set as Polyclinics - the places are owned by some investor & he offers the place on hourly contract. There are no personal belongings allowed in such places. So the doctor do not have any bonding developed with the staff & the places.

I was working with a Chain - One of the very famous & old brand in the Ayurvedic pharma industry of the company. They wanted to foray in to the healthcare business. I was hired keeping in mind the planned development of the concept & run the chain. I closed down my clinic & started afresh with the brand in a newer place accommodating all my old staff. It was the first transformation but was a shift from the clinic. I became the part of a larger corporate unit. In the 100 months we worked together I have seen many clinics opened & shut. There was never a fixed strategy as such in place but I was confident as there was continuous growth. I was reaping the corporate benefits of the business without realizing that I was loosing my individual identity & all my efforts & my clinical knowledge & management skills were labeled as owned by the company. Everything was going on smoothly & we were expanding as the requirement was growing on . we started expanding our wings in different suburbs. In the process some of the clinics were closed down & replaced by other one. This has resulted in diluting the business at core center.

There were many other factors which had seen deterioration which was beyond the leveraging from my own growing practice. It was the first red sign ignored by me. We saw a lack of quality in the supplied goods as they were been stored fore than the desired period. The unnecessary & unexplained larger purchases eroded the profit of the company. slowly the company started reducing the perks which did not yield in any good. Slowly the curbs sterted on essential goods & staff . This resulted in further deterioration in the business & income. Company started closing down its own clinics & started handing it over to junior doctors under the pretext of franchising it . In the initial phases of the franchisee the senior consultants were involved slowly replacing it by only junior people . This was second red signal.

Me as consultant got my act together & tried to stop the tide going against it & tried to maintain business. In the entire process of being working under a brand we diluted our professional  identity. There was some business loss, it was 3 months of loss against the 7 years of extensive profit. But the corporate calculation & thinking follows the instinctive route & wanted to change the status of the clinic & relationship with the consultant. resulting into sudden death of the clinic.

Staff getting upset, new set up has to be created loosing all the efforts taken for the development of a brand .

There is always a feeling of being used , Providing you a smaller benefit - the larger profit has been siphoned off.

One fine day all of a sudden you are told that the clinic is going to shut. It's a great heartening feeling where you feel helpless, a disaster in terms of planning of life. The staff is devastated, the patients are uncertain.

I am a little luckier because my request of LL with the landlord was accepted & I could continue working from the same place. I could not retain the same staff in the same quantity so diluted it , replaced few,

Starting afresh without advertising support - which you are used to - itself was a task. It took 6 months to overcome & once again float yourself stronger than you were. ment like

This death has taught me many things- the unwritten rules of corporate - where profit is the only understood word. There is no place for human relationship & loyalty. Money is the only law. Profit is the phrase everybody wanted to hear. Not accepting the natural laws of ups & down or the cyclical nature of business. The normally buffered shocks in a single owner clinic are not tolerated .

It teaches you many things about the staff & colleagues in Mumbai. I had stopped my operations in Aurangabad 11 years ago since I shifted to Mumbai at that point of time. The process was so gracefully carried out that my staff who was working with me still equally is faithful despite being not anymore employed.

This is in stark contrast with unceremonious detrenchment  like process . It is not illegal, there was no breach as such though certain contracts were broken  but more so ever the the promising words were not honoured. This teaches you many a thing

Death of a clinic - it's a experience beyond tolerance. Some would loose everything he had including the self respect. It's a task in itself to hold you back- It teaches you a lot of things