LifeSpring Hospitals Private Ltd, a fast growing chain of maternity hospitals focused on providing high quality health care to lower-income women and children in India, is planning to set up around 200 hospitals in various parts of the country in a time span of two years.
LifeSpring, a 50-50 equity partnership between HLL Lifecare Limited, a government of India enterprise and formerly Hindustan Latex Limited, and the US-based non profit global venture fund agency Acumen Fund, has already set up nine hospitals in Andhra Pradesh and plans are to establish six more hospitals with 30 beds each in the state in the current financial year.
The company, which offers a wide range of treatment services including prenatal care, postnatal care, normal and caesarean deliveries across three customer wards - general ward, semi-private, and private wards, family planning services, immunizations, paediatric consultations and diagnostic services among other services, has a strategy to set up a cluster of 20 to 25 hospitals in one region, starting with Andhra Pradesh and following with setting up clusters in Maharashtra, Karnataka and later in New Delhi, said a higher official from LifeSpring Hospitals.
The LifeSpring offers services at the cost of 30-50 per cent of the prevailing market rates. Through its affordable services, LifeSpring is planning to significantly reduce the burden of rising health costs on the nation’s low-income communities, helping to reduce poverty.
In the following years, the company has plans to set up 20 to 30 hospitals in each quarter of the financial year. The Funds would be generated from the investors, HLL Lifecare Ltd and Acumen Funds. However, the official refused to reveal more on the required investment for the expansion, since it is a matter of confidentiality.
The LifeSpring's market-based approach model focuses on setting up of small hospitals with 20 to 25 beds and prices significantly below the market rates, providing high quality maternal and child health care at affordable rates for India's low-income population.
LifeSpring, established in February 2008, follows a cross-subsidy model of tiered pricing that enables it to charge low prices for the general ward, which makes up 70 per cent of each hospital. The LifeSpring is not driven as a corporate chain hospital, with less stress on profit making, and the priority is to provide quality healthcare to low income people at affordable cost, said the sources.
However, the first LifeSpring Hospital opened in 2005 on the outskirts of Hyderabad in Moula Ali cane to brake even and became profitable in less than two years of operation and the company expects that, through its process-driven model, each LifeSpring Hospital is easily replicable in other locations, ensuring scaleability and supporting rapid expansion.
In order to ensure that each hospital strictly adheres to the quality protocol system and rigorous attention to metrics the hospital has engaged in a partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, which aims to improve health outcomes through the application of well-tested approaches to health systems improvement and enhancing safety.
Prior to each hospital’s opening and continuously throughout hospital operations, LifeSpring engages in rigorous processes to ensure safety and quality, says the LifeSpring management. The quality assurance includes repeated fumigation of its operating theatre, as well as regular swab testing to ensure bacteria is not present. Additionally, LifeSpring has more than 90 processes related to clinical and operational protocol including processes related to infection control, emergency preparedness, fumigation, sterilization of surgical instruments, management of medical gases, and baby identification tags.