Devarakonda Srichand
British Computer Society, Swindon, UK.
Rural Remote Health. 2016 Jan-Mar;16(1):3476. Epub 2016 Feb 3.
Quality health care should be within everyone's reach, especially in a developing country. While India has the largest private health sector in the world, only one-fifth of healthcare expenditure is publically financed; it is mostly an out-of-pocket expense. About 70% of Indians live in rural areas making about $3 per day, and a major portion of that goes towards food and shelter and, thus, not towards health care. Transportation facilities in rural India are poor, making access to medical facilities difficult, and infrastructure facilities are minimal, making the available medical care insufficient. The challenge presented to India was to provide health care that was accessible, available and affordable to people in rural areas and the low-income bracket.
The intent of this article is to determine whether the hub and spoke model (HSM), when implemented in the healthcare industry, can expand the market reach and increase profits while reducing costs of operations for organizations and, thereby, cost to customers. This article also discusses the importance of information and communications technologies (ICT) in the HSM approach, which the handful of published articles in this topic have failed to discuss. This article opts for an exploratory study, including review of published literature, web articles, viewpoints of industry experts, published journals, and in-depth interviews. This article will discuss how and why the HSM works in India's healthcare industry while isolating its strengths and weaknesses, and analyzing the impact of India's success. India's HSM implementation has become a paramount example of an acceptable model that, while exceeding the needs and expectations of its patients, is cost-effective and has obtained operational and health-driven results. Despite being an emerging nation, India takes the top spot in terms of affordability of ICT as well as for having the highest number of computer-literate graduates and healthcare workers in the world. These factors further aid the implementation of HSM in India, thereby proving the model as a stable operational environment that is saving costs in a financially challenged nation.
HSM has an innovative architecture that emphasizes optimal utilization of scarce healthcare resources in rural areas. HSM demonstrates that medical care can be provided to even the most rural areas while still utilizing modern procedures and equipment at a much more nominal cost to the end user. It also eliminates the need for unnecessary travel, and keeps costs low to medical facilities and patients alike. The model has the potential to create and sustain thousands of local jobs, both direct and indirect. The hope is that the review of the impact of the HSM in Indian health care will result in inquiries of a similar nature in the future.
优质医疗保健应人人可及，尤其是在发展中国家。印度拥有世界上最大的私营医疗部门，但只有五分之一的医疗支出由公共资金提供；大部分是自掏腰包的费用。约70%的印度人生活在农村地区，日收入约3美元，其中大部分用于食品和住房，因此无法用于医疗保健。印度农村地区的交通设施很差，难以获得医疗设施，基础设施也很少，导致现有的医疗服务不足。印度面临的挑战是为农村地区和低收入人群提供可及、可得且负担得起的医疗保健。
本文旨在确定医疗行业实施的轮辐式模式（HSM）能否扩大市场覆盖范围、增加利润，同时降低组织的运营成本，进而降低客户成本。本文还讨论了信息通信技术（ICT）在HSM方法中的重要性，而该主题的少数已发表文章并未对此进行讨论。本文选择进行探索性研究，包括查阅已发表的文献、网络文章、行业专家观点、已发表的期刊以及进行深入访谈。本文将讨论HSM在印度医疗行业如何运作以及为何奏效，同时找出其优势和劣势，并分析印度成功实施该模式的影响。印度实施HSM已成为一个可接受模式的首要典范，该模式在满足患者需求和期望的同时，具有成本效益，并取得了运营和健康方面的成果。尽管印度是一个新兴国家，但在ICT可承受性方面位居榜首，且拥有世界上计算机素养最高的毕业生和医疗工作者数量最多。这些因素进一步助力印度实施HSM，从而证明该模式是一个稳定的运营环境，在一个面临财政挑战的国家节省了成本。
HSM具有创新架构，强调对农村地区稀缺医疗资源的优化利用。HSM表明，即使是最偏远的农村地区也能获得医疗服务，同时仍能以更低的名义成本为最终用户使用现代程序和设备。它还消除了不必要的出行需求，并使医疗设施和患者的成本都保持在较低水平。该模式有潜力直接和间接创造并维持数千个当地就业机会。希望对HSM在印度医疗保健领域影响的回顾将引发未来类似性质的探究。
