A Neighbourhood Hospital

Micro-hospitals are primarily used to assess and treat less acute inpatients closer to a patient’s home

- Dhanraj Chandriani

In the western world, the healthcare industry has seen the value that ‘micro hospitals’ offer. Healthcare system providers are establishing small, comprehensive hospitals in neighborhoods where people reside and also looking at such facilities to create a competitive edge by outspreading their brand to bridge gaps in the market. These facilities, as opposed to urgent care centres and stand-alone emergency departments, provide similar services to the community as a traditional hospital, though on a smaller scale with quicker yet compassionate care.

Micro-hospitals are set up in smaller geographies and underserved areas, where the cost viability of a full-service hospital is absent. Yet they must be within a reasonable distant from a larger, multi-disciplinary hospital to ensure timely transportation of an acute patient. Most of all, micro-hospitals are simple, less expensive and faster to set up than conventional ones.

This concept is very much applicable to India, what with the categorisation of cities into metros, II and III tier. The last two are clear candidates for micro-hospitals. Despite its scale, it is essential that micro hospitals maintain standards of healthcare delivery and comply with all applicable central and state licensing and regulatory requirements as traditional hospitals. This would also make their patients eligible for better health insurance reimbursement.