Private Hospitals in Jakarta & The Surrounding Area: Part II

Hello, from my previous article, “Private Hospitals in Jakarta & The Surrounding Area: From People’s Point of View”, I only share results from a few questionnaires. So in this article, there will be more review which consists of extended discussion and insights from more results of the survey. Hopefully, it can help in some way for hospital managers to deliver good service and get a good review in return.

Below are another three questions from the survey along with the results and discussion.

In the process of getting treatment at any hospital still in Jabodetabek (not necessarily your chosen hospital, in general), what part do you dislike the most?

• 59%       :             Wait for long / queue (reg/cashier/pharmacy)
• 21%       :             Parking space & other building facilities
• 12%       :             Registration system
• 6%         :             Medical service
• 1%         :             Others

I’m curious about what people’s opinion on other private hospitals besides their chosen one. We all know most people went to more than one hospital for medical services. Or at least accompanied a family member to another private hospital. From these findings, we can conclude that the results are not very different from their chosen hospital. The unfavorable experience while they’re getting treatment in the hospital is waiting for a long time / long queue. The second is building facilities, mostly the parking space, and the last is about the registration system.

Let’s elaborate one by one. Handling the long waiting problem in a hospital, is actually unavoidable. Especially when you’re in the waiting room of a doctor’s clinic. Medical service is handling a person. A human, who each has a unique body condition. That cannot be compared to assembling a machine in an assembly line manufacturer, which has a precise work time. So then, what can we do? Are you still thinking about queue numbers per arrival or per reservation? Well. There’s always a long argument about whether queue numbers should be based on what. Shall we be more creative and find another way that could definitely work? We surely can… manage the waiting time.

What do people feel when they are waiting for something until they become agitated?

1. Unoccupied time feels longer than occupied time.
2. Unexplained waits are longer than explained waits.
3. Physically uncomfortable waits feel longer than comfortable waits.

This is why, in every waiting room, there’s always a TV screen hanging on the wall and reading materials like magazines or newspapers. Nowadays, especially after the pandemic, to minimize touching objects, it is more popular to provide free Wi-Fi internet, so people can entertain themselves with their own devices.

One thing that I haven’t seen in any hospital is.. Why don’t they use the system (SIMRS: Sistem Informasi Manajemen Rumah Sakit) connecting to a patient’s smartphone to give them ring-like notifications when their turn is nearly up? You know like those devices when you order food in a self-service restaurant, when your food is ready, the device will beep and vibrate so you can go to the counter to get your order. It’s just the same thing, but instead of using a device (which the hospital needs another investment), we could use the hospital’s system, which already has the patient’s data and ring them for information such as in queue or waiting time. So the patient can wait anywhere around the hospital, they can be in the cafeteria, or coffeeshop. We could use this strategy in other queue spots, such as pharmacies, or even cashiers. This is why, in the previous article, I emphasized the importance of having a good SIMRS. Don’t use the system only for medical records or management reports, but use it for the whole operational institution. I mean, that is what technology is for, to make our work easier. I can guarantee it will also be convenient for the patients.

Another thing that could minimize the waiting time anxiety, is to give your patient information on waits. It will bring a different reaction if you are waiting for the doctor, and are told nothing. And being informed that the doctor would be a little late for the appointment, and he was 30 minutes away. Or you are in situations queuing at the pharmacy, and there’s a current queue number on the screen, so you can estimate how long it will be until your turn. Better than no information at all in the queue, and you feel like waiting for an uncertain time.

The market for private hospitals in Jakarta and the surrounding area, has private transportation and the majority are cars. Knowing your market is important in running your business, in this case, profit hospitals. I have written about designing your business place according to the service flow. Please read about it in my previous article “Crafting your business place.”    

In your opinion, is the quality of hospital services in Indonesia good enough?

• 43.5%   :            As it should be, no more, no less.
• 42.2%   :            Still lacking but close to service standards.
• 11.6%   :             A little above standard, there are extra things in the service.
• 2.7%      :            Very bad, way below standard.

This is a multiple choice question, and I put another option for Service Excellent, which no one picked. So, our hospital services in general are just so-so and less. Could this be a reason why many Indonesians go abroad to seek medical services? Well, the survey only from a few Jabodetabek (Jakarta-Bogor-Depok-Tangerang-Bekasi) domiciles, so we cannot say that it represents the Indonesian people.

While the hospital management promote their sophisticated equipment or their inpatient room designed like a five-star hotel, it does not really play an important role for patients in choosing a hospital. Do you honestly think that a patient goes to a hospital just because they have a CT scan of 640 slices? Or the latest model? Think again.

What the patient is really looking for is how good the service the staff will provide. A good experience or a smooth patient journey would be the top objective of the patients. From handling the patients in a good manner, there comes trust which is followed by recommendations to others. This is where the true promotion began and it is powerful. You can also read about this in our previous article titled “What is the most powerful promotion?”

If you had the opportunity, would you prefer to seek medical treatment abroad?

• 60.5%   :             YES
• 39.5%   :             NO

This is the last question of the questionnaire. I still need to dig deeper into the reason. Because I asked around some friends and family who are included in going abroad, and their reasons were so varied. But having an insight from this small simple survey, gives me a conclusion that let’s focus on the management aspect and put more investment in a good SIMRS that is balanced with good human capital who operates it, then your hospital will be leading the market in no time.