The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Training in `patient relationship management' for hospital staff

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Training in `patient relationship management' for hospital staff

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, NOV. 23. The potential for medical tourism, which enables patients from overseas to undergo treatment at Indian hospitals, is estimated to be several thousand crores of rupees each year. But patients often select hospitals on the basis of word-of-mouth publicity — they go by the experience of others who have used the services at a particular hospital.

"Almost all hospitals may have similar equipment and facilities, but the way the staff, especially the paramedics, behave with the patients and their families matters more,'' Sundar Natraj, co-founder of Aeolis International, says. His company trains doctors and other hospital staff on "patient relationship management" (PRM).

Attitude

"The attitude of a ward boy, the hospital's `foot soldier,' matters a lot. If a patient asks for a towel just when the ward boy's shift is ending and he passes on the task to a person on the next shift, it will be annoying for the patient. On the other hand, if he goes that extra mile to bring the towel before going off duty, it will make a lot of difference to the hospital's reputation for service,'' Mr. Natraj explains.

This is just one aspect of the PRM training. "The training is built on the four fundamentals of care, concern, trust and confidence, and what doctors call `a bedside manner' has to be cultivated by other hospital staff too,'' he says. The need for such training is born out of necessity; treatment in India is less expensive, and for non-resident Indians (NRIs), the atmosphere is more familiar. A cataract surgery for one eye, which may cost $ 3,500 overseas, costs only 50 per cent of that here, hospital stay included; many can even find funds for a holiday afterwards. But, NRIs are also used to good service when they go to a doctor or a hospital.

Modules

The training offered has different modules for the needs of hospital administrators, junior doctors, nurses, ward boys and so on.

The nurses, for instance, will be helped to communicate more effectively with patients; it is their feedback that often helps the doctor decide on treatment. They will also be helped to overcome stress and be "de-mechanised" after seeing so many deaths as part of their daily work. They will also learn to deal with patients as guests, as do trained staff in a large department store or hotel.

A panel of doctors and nursing superintendents helps Aeolis in designing training modules. "We also get feedback from hospitals and conduct an audit 30 days after training and again after three months to see whether there are significant behavioural changes among the staff or not,'' Mr. Natraj says.

Now, 120 employees of Wockhardt Hospital here are undergoing training; the employees of some of largest hospitals in Mumbai have been trained.

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