Care24, a Mumbai based home healthcare start up, has announced plan to expand its operation in five cities across the country including Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi within a year.
“Considering the demand for home healthcare services in various parts of the country, we are keen to enhance our presence beyond Mumbai. Our Bengaluru operation is likely to start in next three months. Apart from this, the healthcare startup is planning to launch mobile based patient management system in coming months enabling the company to monitor recovery of patients and keep care givers in the loop to speed up patient recovery,” said Vipin Pathak, co-founder of Care24.
The patient management system will be equipped with features like remote monitoring system wherein relatives of patients can remotely keep track on the patients' recovery enabling the loved ones breath a sigh of relief. Another feature of the system would include regular reminders on medicine which keeps patients alert medicine reminder which keeps patients alert on medication timing. The patient recovery status generated through the patient management system will be passed on medical professionals and paramedical staff attending the patients to ensure their fast recovery, said Pathak.
Talking about reason behind Care24's entry into home healthcare segment, he said “Changing lifestyle and round -the-clock work patterns has brought up the inevitability to engage the helps to look after the family. But, if the helps don’t turn up when they were most sought after, life becomes difficult. They cannot even be trusted for quality work as well. Care24 steps in right there to fill up the void and offer personalized help right at the doorstep. The startup is not just involved in connecting the customers to the right caregivers, but also specializes in reliable, transparent and secure service. The core idea is to leverage technology to track the caregivers and enforce a stringent feedback system. This ensures back to back integrated best quality services to the customers.”
The home healthcare startup which complements hospital care at home setting of patients has recently launched home care packages for oncology patients. It provides patients 50 home healthcare services including post-discharge care, bedridden care, chronic pain care, physiotherapy, infant care, pre-natal and post-natal care, everyday medical nursing, long term care, elderly care, diabetes and stroke care, assisted daily living, pharmacy, medical equipment services.
“We are currently serving 600 patients in Mumbai per day with 900 staff on board including medicos, physiotherapists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, nurses etc. Last year we served 10,000 (+) patients in the city. We are intended to serve one lakh patients in Mumbai by next year,” said Pathak.
Talking about revenue plan, he said, “The company charges 20 per cent margin on services it offers to patients. For physiotherapy we charge a patient Rs. 600-Rs. 800 per day depending on their condition. Our neuro service costs Rs. 800 per day and nursing service Rs. 300 a day, attendant service Rs. 700 daily. Geriatric care contributes 50 per cent of the company's revenue followed by physiotherapy 30 per cent, nursing 20 per cent.”
Care24 raised $ 4 million from SAIF Partners to further expand its technology advancement and caregiver training. We provide continuing training to care providers. Our technology advancement includes mapping of right care givers which helps us find right care giver for patients on time, he added.
The home healthcare industry is pegged at USD 3 billion. Of them, Care24 aims to achieve 10 per cent market share in longer term.