Partnerships are vital for community minded organisations
to become sustainable. These might not
lead to financial resources but they might introduce potential service users to
an organisations creating greater patient flow, enabling greater technology to
be used in the workplace, additional marketing efforts, etc. These partnerships might also create "good will" enhancing reputation leading
to other opportunities, as well as, learning from one another, resulting in
greater efficiencies and/or greater collaborations.
This was recently the case when Phul Kumari Mahato Memorial Hospital
(PKMMH) hosted a four day
DHO family planning program enabling approximately 62 women to receive a free
government sponsored tubectomy. As a community based Hospital we welcomed
this opportunity for the DHO to use the PKMMH infrastructure for the second
year in a row. Although the treated
women did not necessarily take advantage of the basic services offered at
PKMMH, the fact that many had young children and that we are going to be
hosting a pediatrician from Grande Hospital in Kathmandu in a few weeks was
made known, as well as, introducing the women to what we do offer. Additionally we provided the DHO staff with
some opportunities for piggybacking on PKMMH direct community marketing efforts
at haat bazaars. Taking a more strategic
business focused approach, for future programs it would make sense to plan
early and develop further collaborations for greater impact as PKMMH has a
great community base and DHO offers a variety of free services.
Recently Dr. Bhaskar Raj Pant
an Orthopedic doctor at Grande Hospital
in Kathmandu conducted a special clinic at PKMMH seeing approximately 110
patients over a day and half. He told me
about the organisation Possible, http://possiblehealth.org/, of which he is a board
member. "In everything we do, we believe in proving it’s possible to
deliver high-quality, low-cost healthcare to the world’s poor. Healthcare is broken. It works the
least for those who require it the most. And the worlds poorest need a new
approach. We are a team determined to make a model of durable healthcare work
where everyone said it couldn’t be done."
(From Possible website)
Possible,
with headquarters in New York City, operates a rural hospital in Achham
providing, in partnership with the Government, subsidized health care in a very
remote area and is constructing the first rural teaching hospital in
Nepal. Their approach is one of
integrated health, e.g. "What
pregnant women really need, in a region with one of the highest maternal
mortality rates in the world, is access to safe birthing centers closer to
their homes and support throughout their pregnancies."
Possible's business model is one of, "high-quality, low-cost
healthcare system that integrates government hospitals, clinics, community
health workers, and referral care." Possible uses an entrepreneurial spirit, Key Performance
Indicators (KPI), i.e. surgery access, equity, safe birth, follow up,
outpatient use and family planning, and an approach that says, "In everything we do we believe in
proving it's possible to deliver high quality, low cost health care to the
world's poorest people."
Possible is very strategic with 10 basic principles starting with putting
their patients first, resulting in excellent customer care/service.
Possible
understands the need to partner and does so with the Government through the Ministry of Health
and Population and businesses such as Asana, Abbott, BambooHR, Google, QBC Diagnostics, Salesforce, Voith, covering a wide range of items
helping to make their services possible.
Possessing
an MBA and having been primarily focused on the social sector during my career,
I very much appreciate taking a business with a human face approach. There
is much to be learned from the corporate sector in terms of how to market
services, partnering, customer/patient satisfaction, being strategic and using
proper planning methods, etc. Taking a
pro-active approach and ensuring that customer/patient/service users
satisfaction is placed first is key to ensuring sustainability. The Possible business model shows that
collaborations between the government, social and corporate sections can indeed
make anything possible.
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