Wuxi Hospital for Women and Babies

Lu Xiongwen and Christopher Lovelock

This hospital (WHWB) established in 1950 was a specialized hospital

integrating the functions of obstetrics and gynecology treatment, health
care science research, education, professional training, and family
planning guidance. WHWB is located in the center of the city of Wuxi in
the Yangtze River Delta of China. It based its competitive advantages on
its physical facilities, specialized equipment and staff expertise. In 1994,
it was named a Baby Friendly Hospital by Chinas National Ministry of
Health.
Over the years, the hospital had introduced a variety of service
innovations, including personalized service concept, which had reinforced
its leading position in Jiangsu Province. However due to much higher
expectations among patients and increasing fierce competition among
health care organizations, every hospital was trying to match service
innovations introduced by others in order to attract more patients.
With many hospitals being built in the province, by 2015 the competition
in the hospital industry is getting highly intense. WHWB management
was aware that if it failed to work on maintaining its lead, it could easily
be overtaken by competitors.
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Background
Wuxi is known for its proximity to the beautiful Tai Lake in the south of
Jiangsu Province. The city is located midway between Shanghai and
Nanjing. It boasts a well-financed high technology industrial park with a
population of a few million. It also has a high disposable income per
capital. The economic development in the area has stimulated massive
investment and development. This include the growth of
(1) non-profit hospitals, directly under the government,
(2) nonprofit

community hospitals, which were financed by market

capital but required to

invest their earnings in improving medical facilities and
(3) profit hospitals, financed by market capital but were required to pay
taxes.
Competition

The welcoming economic environment of the Yangtze River Delta

attracted many foreign hospitals to enter this market. Foreign hospitals
have more advance medical technology, modern equipment and
managerial orientation, reinforced by successful brand names, tended to
leave their Chinese counterparts far behind. Before entering the Chinese
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market, most foreign hospitals had undertaken significant studies of the

entire Chinese medical market and used this information to make careful
selection of hospital sites.
With the approval of the national Ministry of Health & Commerce, the first
foreign hospital in Jiangsu Province was build in 2003 with a 600 bed
polyclinic.

This

hospital

containing

multiple

medical

and

surgical

departments, and capable of treating a wide range of medical conditions,

was financed by Hong Kongs Heng Seng Trade Company with an initial
investment of 500 million yuan. For state owned hospitals that had never
had to worry about completion in the past, the threat posed by the entry
of such foreign hospital into the Chinese health care market was deeply
troubling. Thus Chinese hospitals are facing a serious threat.
In addition, the gradual implementation of medical system reform in
China imposed new requirements on hospital. Their ability to survive and
grow would now depend on how well they could adapt to new policies
and a radically changed environment.

WHWB Hospital

WHWB has four major clinical departments:

(1)Department of Gynecology
(2)Department of Obstetrics
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(3)Department of Infants
(4)Technology Guiding Center for Family Planning
There were also two diagnostic centers for treating difficult and complex
obstetrical and gynecological diseases. WHWB was seen as one of the
trial hospitals for medical reform in the city and was also a pioneer in
marketing hospital services.

The Clinic

At the entrance to the clinic, the researchers saw patients were

immediately triaged according to the severity of their condition. The
emergency nurse would evaluate the patients condition. If deemed
severe, the patient would receive Special Green Card service, which
entitled him or her to priority examinations and medical treatment,
special nursing, and one consolidated bill.
There is a self-help information kiosk with a touch screen display.
Customers coming for the first time could obtain details of the process for
using the clinics service and other basic information about the hospital.
However this touch screen somewhat difficult to operate and failed to
perform on many occasions.

In the clinic hall, the sign displaying the slogan promoting the hospital as
a One Stop Service Center was quite impressive. Patients coming to
WHWB could expect the following:
(1)Hospital representatives coordinate and resolve any conflicts
between doctors and patients, and also to receive evaluation
reports and suggestions from patients and their relatives.
(2)Clinic guidance service where staff guide the patients with
appointments to their respective doctors and to the examination
areas, and render help to those needing physical assistance.
(3)Convenience service station relating to equipment and amenities
such as wheelchairs, drinking water and cups
(4)Clinic reservations, medical consultation and Mother and Infant
Hotline A 50-yuan fee was charged for each medical appointment
made.
In the nurse section, there are two tall shelves filled with patient records,
which had not yet been fully computerized, information recording and
transmitting still had to rely on traditional paper records.
Maternity Training Courses

The classroom was equipped with air-conditioning, color TV and

comfortable chairs. There were several big exercise balls and on the wall
hung some posters featuring daily lives of pregnant women. This training
center targeted women who were more than four months into their
pregnancy, and aimed to provide a warm, pleasant, and comfortable
environment for them and their husbands to learn more about
pregnancy, birth and postnatal care. Experience doctors would give
interactive lectures on such topics as health knowledge, nutrition
guidance, delivery skills, labor-pain-reducing methods, post-delivery
issues for new mothers, care of newborn babies, and nursing skills.
There are also exercises and breathing techniques which could help the
women

in

blood

circulation,

relax

and

reduce

discomfort

often

experienced during pregnancy.

It is usually conducted in a small group of eight to ten couples, in order to
ensure sufficient communication with the doctor. Seventy to eighty
percent enjoyed a trouble-free delivery and their babies were significantly
stronger than others. This course took place on weekday afternoons,
consisted of eight sessions at a cost of 50 yuan per session. Husbands
who are working have to take leave to accompany their wives or only
attend important sessions. Thus it is inconvenience for them.

In-Patient Services

WHWB had launched many services, including Comfortable Waiting for

Delivery,

Painless

Delivery

Joyful

Company and

Guidance

for

Delivery, Easing Labour and Pairing the Midwife and the Mother-to
Be.
Comfortable Waiting for Delivery meant that when the pregnant woman
was waiting for delivery, a relative, usually her husband or mother was
allowed to accompany her in the delivery waiting room. The guiding
nurse would massage her and teach her how to find relief from pain.
WHWB service called Painless Delivery is a service whereby the
pregnant woman can choose to delivery without going through painful
labor. Evaluation feedback indicated that most mothers said really did
give them relief from labor pain.
Many of the services are chargeable. For example
1. Watching the Operation on TV service at 800 yuan,
2. Accompanied Operation at 100 yuan
3. Life Cut service at 80 yuan, which allowed the father to cut the
newborn childs umbilical cord with a pair of specially-made
scissors
4. Yue Zi Wards which takes care of the new mothers in hospital
suites (bathroom and a sitting room with air-conditioning system,
color TV, telephone, hi-fi system etc at 350 yuan per day

5. Light Wave bath which was safe, sanitary, and particularly

suitable for woman who had undergone caesarean operation at 20
yuan
6. Infant Massage and Infant Swimming. It was designed for
babies as young as one day old.

Service Management
With patients becoming more demanding and competition fiercer among
health care organizations, WHWB was constantly seeking new ways to
attract

customers.

The

management

conducts

Customer

Service

Satisfaction survey periodically to determine the level of customer

satisfaction and getting feedback on how they can improve their services
to remain competitive.
Each department and team at WHWB had committed itself to meet
certain standards in the services it provided and publicized them by
framing a set of printed commitments and hanging them on the wall
where they could be easily seen by patients. To avoid making empty
promises, hospital management often checked doctors and nurses
familiarity with these commitments. Certain staff members were
assigned the task of monitoring performance to determine if the
standards were actually being met. WHWB s principle was to Never
promise the moon. The hospital had once promised No-more-than-halfan hour-waiting. In practice, however this promise could rarely be met

because of the large number of patients, and so it was eventually

withdrawn.
Facing severe competition among health care organizations, the WHWB
management team realized that it would be quite easy for other
providers to copy the innovative services that it had developed. They
were debating how best to differentiate the hospital and create core
competitive advantages for the future. Thanks to the hospitals growing
reputation, the number of patients at WHWB had increased considerably;
at times, demand even exceeded the hospitals capacity. A key issue was
whether to position WHWB as serving a mass market and to expand its
service capacity or, alternatively, to focus on elite customers and hence,
transform it into a high-end-hospital.

QUESTIONS
Q1. Discuss how the changes in the legal (government) and marketing
situation has affect
the non-profit hospitals (government) and the private profit oriented
local Chinese
hospitals like WHWB.

Q2. Discuss the competitive appeal of WHWB hospital.

Q3. Evaluate the appropriateness of any three service innovation of
WHWB.
Q4. As the Marketing Manager of the Wuxi Hospital, what are your
marketing strategy in
improving the competitiveness of the hospital?

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