Lalit Pai, CEO, Nightingales Home Health Services, throws light on the growth of home healthcare industry and how they work towards building a clinical-quality home care solutions in a conversation with Mansha Gagneja
Home healthcare scenario is drastically changing. What are your strategies to cope with these changes?
When we stepped into the home healthcare industry back in 2014, it was at a nascent stage. However, in a short span of two to three years, home healthcare has become an established category in the healthcare industry. Besides providing resources and care to a patient at home, our approach is to create a structure where patients and their families can expect good outcomes on a sustained basis. This requires the service provider to establish protocols which must be followed, metrics that must be measured and above all, holistic training of all the care providers responsible for extending our services.
A solution-based approach is what we have introduced in the industry and this has been crucial in shaping customer expectations. We believe that this approach will provide genuine clinical value to patients and clinicians.
Nightingales is on an expansion spree. Which other cities do you plan to tap and why?
Yes, we are on an expansion spree. Currently, Nightingales is present in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai and has more than 11 offices across these cities. We started off with around five people and currently, have more than 900 full time employees which includes doctors, nurses, and other staff. We opened our first branch in Nariman Point and have recently opened third branch in Santacruz. We intend to open 10 centres altogether in Mumbai and Pune.
We are also exploring other metro cities in India. Our intention is to focus on each metro-city and continue to work on expanding our presence. We will be able to update you on our expansion plans in detail in a couple of months.
What is your plan of action for growth in these centres?
We have always focussed on creating comprehensive home care solutions around key therapeutic areas like neuro rehab, oncology, pulmonology, wound care and infusions. To achieve this, we constantly have to educate patients and the medical community about the clinical effectiveness of the solutions that we provide.
How do you train your staff to create awareness among your patients?
The team of medical care experts are specially trained in providing home-based care. We customise the care plans specifically to suit patient’s needs, which are prepared by an advisory board of experts along with the lead specialist in the condition that is being treated. They frequently monitor patient progress and share it with them on the Nightingales App to ensure they return to good health easier and faster. In addition, detailed medical history is shared with each Nightingales doctor, so that they can be fully aware of patient’s health status.
The industry is mostly an unorganised one. What are the other challenges and how do you plan to tackle them?
We have been able to attract talent from the unorganised sector because we have always been fair in the way we treat our staff – we only deploy full-time employees and not contractors. We adhere to all the labour rules and regulations and spend time and effort to ensure that our employees are trained on a continuous basis.
With new players entering the home healthcare sector, what USPs are you offering?
Irrespective of the home healthcare sectors growing and new entrants entering the market, we have kept our USP very simple and we adhere and believe in it. We provide comprehensive, clinical-quality home care solutions where patients can experience a better quality of life. This is delivered using clinical protocols with trained and experienced staff and measured on a regular basis so that their progress can be monitored regularly by the clinicians treating them along with the family of the patient.
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