IHH virtual consultation a pre-planned move before Covid-19

IN a rare occurrence, analysts have been silent and have not issued any reports or comments on IHH Healthcare Bhd’s move to launch its telemedicine initiative in its hospitals.

Their silence despite the market’s broad welcome of this move could portent that investors may be too optimistic of the Covid19 health crisis that is at hand.

IHH’S shares had gained some 7% by the end of the week since the announcement was made on Wednesday.

The hospital operator’s share price rise trend is also seen among other healthcare industry peers, which includes rubber glove makers and healthcare equipment manufacturers, as investors continue to pile into the market.

IHH’S price gain is based on the assumption that the telemedicine launch that allows for specialists to meet patients remotely would help it recover some, if not all, of the losses that it is experiencing from the fears of catching the virus when visiting the hospital.

In response to questions from Starbizweek on whether the initiative will help recover the lost revenue from Covid-19 fears, IHH managing director and CEO Dr Kelvin Loh says that it will not be spared the short-term impact.

“IHH will remain resilient with our Refreshed Strategy even though like all other businesses, we expect a short-term impact,” the spokesperson says.

Reports said last month that private hospital patients have increasingly chosen to defer elective medical procedures and services.

“This happened as more markets enforce lockdowns or impose more stringent movement and travel restrictions. And this includes foreign patients who cannot travel to our hospitals at the current time,” IHH had said then.

Loh says that its move earlier in the week to launch its virtual consultation services in all its key markets worldwide, including in Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, India and Hong Kong, is new and in line with the times.

“IHH is proud that we are the first in our industry to make virtual consultation available across all our key markets globally,” Loh says.

The hospital operator says that this move had been pre-planned when it formulated its new business strategy and is not being executed exclusively due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This was already part of our Refreshed

Strategy to use digitalisation and innovation to meet the evolving needs of our patients. It is not about replacing or recovering business during Covid-19 but it is a planned integration into our bricks-and-mortar services,” Loh says.

“The pandemic has accelerated this plan and we are pleased that we can now provide our patients peace of mind and access to uninterrupted quality medical care whether from their homes or at our facilities, with seamless transfers as necessary.”

Loh says IHH continues to see a steady flow of acute and semi-elective cases at its facilities overall.

There are generally three types of cases that medical professionals will attend to at the hospitals: acute cases, semi-elective and elective procedures.

Industry insiders say acute cases have the highest revenue per inpatient and is the most revenue intensive because of their complex nature.

Due to their nature, these cases have an inelastic demand and it is understood the industry usually sees some 50% of its cases being the acute and semi-elective types.

Semi-elective cases can be postponed for a while but these cases will eventually have to be attended to by medical professionals sooner or later.

Observers note that patient load from semi-elective cases could bounce back once fears on the virus subside or when patients are confident with the preventive measures taken.

Loh, meanwhile, says that IHH has seen a strong start to its virtual consultation services. “For example, our India associate Fortis Healthcare Ltd has conducted more than 16,000 teleconsultations since it launched the service across 23 of its hospitals there on March 27. It also sees an average of more than 370 patients online daily,” he says.

“In Turkey alone, more than 1,300 teleconsultations have been conducted at Acibadem hospitals since its Doctor Online platform went live on March 31 this year,” Loh adds.

The telemedicine move lets the doctors keep in touch with their patients and may not help address the underlying issue of virus fears from admissions and surgical procedures, which is where hospitals mainly get their income from.

“IHH will remain resilient with our Refreshed Strategy even though like all other businesses, we expect a short-term impact.” Dr Kelvin Loh