Nurses@Home to promote services more aggressively

BT: Home nursing specialist Nurses@Home expects to see a five-fold jump in revenue within the next 12 months as the concept and the brand is promoted more aggressively among Malaysian consumers.
This organised integrated nursing service, provided as an alternative to prolonged hospital stays and effective post-discharge care, is provided by Sun City Bhd’s 51 per cent unit, Sunmed@ Home Sdn Bhd.
Sunmed@Home, which was set up with a initial paid-up capital of RM350,000, is currently making an average of RM30,000 in revenue a month.
“Our nurses make 200 to 300 visits each month ... or 10 visits a day,” Sunmed@Home managing director Asok Nair said.
“We expect to grow by 400 per cent in revenue over the next 12 months,” Nair told Business Times.
Patients are charged between RM65 and RM100 per visit.
This would mean that the company, which delivers nursing service cost-effectively in the comfort of ones’ home, is likely to rake in over RM120,000 in revenue by next September 2005.
Assuming that it maintains revenue at RM120,000 in the second year, the revenue potential for the company is about RM1.44 million.
Sunmed@Home expects to break even within the next 18 to 24 months and be profitable starting from year three onwards.
According to Nair, the company’s optimism is supported by a survey which revealed that 40 per cent of the patients in hospitals do not need to be there in the first place.
And the reason these patients continue to stay for prolonged periods in the hospitals is because they are either not aware of the home nursing services and/or the majority of insurance policies cover hospitalisation and not post-acute healthcare services at home.
“This large portion are our potential clients,” Nair said.
It is believed that is only one other player in the market offering similar services, while the remaining business is handled by individual nurses who are recommended by word-of-mouth.
Nair explained that this service of providing healthcare and nursing services for patients at their homes was in fact, a department within the Sunway Medical Centre which was functioning for about two years.
After some negotiations, this division was incorporated as a separate business. The remaining 49 per cent stake is with privately-held Citarasa Kombinasi Sdn Bhd.
Nair said Nurses@ Home is looking at creating awareness among the end-users (patients) and medical and insurance players to develop home nursing as an integral part of post-treatment.
To this end, it is currently in negotiations with four insurance players in the industry to incorporate the plan into their health policy.
Also in the pipeline are plans to work with government agencies or institutions to recognise the Nurses@ Home concept as a viable nursing aid.