Kluaynamthai card 'for funds members'
Kluaynamthai Hospital Group, a local medium-sized hospital, has launched a privilege card targeting members of the Social Security Fund, as a strategy to survive amid cut-throat competition.
Wuthipan Subhachaturas, chief marketing officer, said private hospitals were focusing on three groups of patients - those paying by cash, those with Bt30 cards and social security patients.He said Kluaynamthai didn't want to compete with other leading hospitals such as Bangkok Dusit, Bumrungrad and Phayathai because it would have to invest a huge amount of money and take a long time repositioning itself as a premium facility. Hence, Kluaynamthai decided to concentrate on attracting groups of social security and Bt30 scheme patients instead of the high-end, he said. "Many hospitals avoid admitting social security members and Bt30 scheme patients. But if they know how to manage the financial system and promote people's health, they can get profit from social security funds," Wuthipan said. The "Kluaynamthai Elite Card", wants to keep its 89,000 social security patients but the hospital has the capacity to expand this capacity to cover up to 120,000 patients. The Social Security Fund now has 8 million members. Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul, The Nation
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