Health delivered at Home - A Futuristic Healthcare Ecosystem Powered by Innovation

Pune, July 25, 2019: India’s home healthcare sector, which is currently changing the Indian healthcare landscape is estimated to grow to $6.2bn market by 2020, on the back of rising consumer demand, increasing incidence of chronic diseases and rising elderly population having high life expectancy.

Nightingales Home Health Services, a Medwell Ventures company, which has pioneered the specialty - led home healthcare, discussed key trends that are emerging within the home healthcare industry and how the industry is gradually aligning itself to market demands at a media briefing today in Pune

Across curative treatments like rehabilitation and physiotherapy, palliative care for the elderly, chronic care plans for patients with lifestyle diseases, and specialty services like intensive care, Dr. Sweta Choudhary, Head - Medical Products & Services, Nightingales Home Health Services shared that it is imperative to embrace the power of one-on-one care where every treatment plan co-created with specialists is as personalized as possible because no two roads to recovery are the same.

“The need of the hour is to prioritize and personalize health care delivery in a cost effective manner, which will be only possible when existing healthcare institutions streamline their efforts in dispensing care in a cost effective manner facilitating best outcome for patients by collaborating with home health care providers using the right combination of technology to boost the medical system of the country”, said Dr. Sweta Choudhary.

Nightingales entered the Pune market in March 2017.Dr. Choudhary and Piyush Bhargav, Chief Operating Officer at Nightingales Home Health Services shared the following insights specific to the Pune market:

Ø  Physiotherapy – Since its inception in Pune, Nightingales has catered to over 4000+  patients for physiotherapy sessions, mostly for pulmonary rehabilitation, neuro-rehabilitation, orthopedic and pain management.

Ø  Trained Attendants- In last one year more than 500 patients, between the age group of 55 to 90 yrs have availed Attendant services from Nightingales. Out of this, 60% were reported to be female patients.  Currently, Nightingales caters to 10 unique patients in Pune who have been consistently availing Attendant services since  last 15 months.

Ø  Nursing Services & Doctor Consultation at home- Nightingales’ provides nursing services at home including infusions, wound dressing, diabetic foot care, bedsore care, catheterization, Ryle’s tube insertion, tracheostomy care, colostomy care, PEG feeding (Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) care,  Oncology care, Renal Care and Post-operative care.

Ø  Sleep study– Inadequate or unsatisfactory sleep is becoming a serious health issue of the modern living. Ailments such as sleep apnea, snoring, gasping for air during sleep, insomnia, morning headaches and excessive daytime sleepiness have been ignored by most patients for a long time. However, Nightingales observed that in the last one year, people have been acknowledging sleep ailments and have been gradually warming up to the idea of undergoing treatment to recover from sleep disorders. Since its inception in Pune, Nightingales has provided  sleep studies to over 550 patients.

Emerging Trends in the industry

·         Changing Perception - Currently when we talk about home health care, the general perception is that of providing nursing or post-operative care within the comfort of our homes. But, in future outpatient department work and routine monitoring of patients suffering from chronic illnesses will essentially be done through remote monitoring within a home health care setup.

·         Advanced Patient Monitoring processes - Advanced patient monitoring that was earlier possible only in a hospital setting –can now be offered with remarkable ease at home. In addition to it patient’s personal and family health histories, collated and stored over a period of time at single point of contact will help in discerning optimal treatment for an individual at home, benefitting patients who are suffering from chronic ailments that require regular monitoring but not in real need for hospitalization.

·         Personalized Customer Experience - Increasing healthcare awareness coupled with rising household income has set the course, as people are now looking for personalized healthcare providers just like a personal trainer at the gym.

·         Addressing the Demand and Supply gap – In the upcoming years, the hospital sector will play a pivotal role in the Indian health care sector as the country will be witnessing a steady rise in demand for quality healthcare, but at the same time infrastructure of institutional health care sector like that of hospitals will face a tough challenge to grow as per the budding demand, creating a sizeable problem in terms of demand and supply gap, and the only possible solution to this is to pave way for home health car

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·         Patients who are no longer in the acute phase of their illness, but are not fully ready for ICU discharge require ICU at Home

·         With an ageing population, awareness and higher incidence of nuclear families, there is a huge demand for critical care at home

·         Cost is one of the main reasons why people are opting for home ICU services. An ICU stay in a private hospital can cost anywhere between Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 50,000 per day. At home, the cost comes down to Rs. 6000 to Rs. 9000 per day.

·         There is shortage of 7 lakh hospital beds in India and the quickest, quality assured, safe way to address this shortfall is to convert home beds into hospital beds. Since the country’s health infrastructure is bursting at the seams, home healthcare has emerged as the imminent solution to India’s elderly care woes.

·         Continuing critical care at home also has other advantages including an environment with reduced noise; better sleep; open visiting hours; easier access to personal belongings, reduced infections, etc. The psychological benefits of healing in a familiar environment cannot be over emphasized. 

The Way Forward

The way forward is to prioritize and personalize health care delivery in a cost effective manner, which will be only possible when current health care institutions streamline their efforts in dispensing care in a cost effective manner facilitating best outcome for patients by collaborating with home health care providers using right combination of technology to boost the medical system of the country.

The government needs to take strong action to regulate this segment through accreditation and standardization. One big sticking point is that home healthcare expenses are not covered under insurance.