LifeSpring Hospital

and increasing productivity by specialising in it. The hospital has been able to standardise clinical protocols and other procedures to enable clarity of task and higher productivity. The hospital has also standardised surgery kits. With tools like ISO certification, the hospital is able to streamline  its process and implement several measures to reduce costs. For instance, the bulk purchase of limited equipment and medicines helped LifeSpring to lower supplies costs. In addition, the hospital utilises more auxillary nurse midwifery (ANM) nurses than graduate nurse midwifery (GNM). These nurses are only trained for birthing and thus are less expensive and less demanding. Therefore, their attrition rate is also low.
Even though the hospital follows the low pricing policy, it does not compromise on service. It uses the latest equipment and techniques like the Siemens ultrasound, and handles difficult cases like high-risk pregnancy with ease.

High throughput
LifeSpring is able to achieve its goal by targeted marketing via multiple channels, and its dedicated out-reach staff has contributed to high throughput in the hospital. In addition, its low OPD fees and proximity to urban slums has enhanced footfalls in the hospital. LifeSpring ensures  high utilisation of its most expensive asset – its doctors. Low capital expenditure and ‘no frill’ service enables LifeSpring to limit its non-core spending.

Simple, sustainable business model
LifeSpring’s business model is one-of-its-kind; it aims to serve as a model for providing high-quality maternal and child health services to the poor in India as well as worldwide. It has wisely chosen an unserviced customer group and high prevalence need – pregnancy – to base its business on. The hospital focusses on a particular niche of maternal health and achieves high quality within that niche through its process-oriented methods. This is its most important differentiator, and has contributed immensely to its success.
LifeSpring achieves the twin goals of commercial viability and social impact in a number of innovative ways. Through their cross-subsidy model of tiered pricing for in-patient care, women can choose to give birth in a general ward (less than 30-50 per cent of prevailing market rates), semi-private room or private room (equivalent to market rates).
In addition, the hospital is modest, without compromising its high quality, and with emphasis on finely tuned, standardised processes and maximum utilisation of resources. Through these innovative methods, LifeSpring’s model allows rapid scale up.
Its fast growth trajectory since 2005 has demonstrated its ability to scale-up. Rigorous attention to metrics and adherence to quality protocol system ensure that LifeSpring’s expansion and high quality are achieved simultaneously. As costs decrease with scale, high-care volume, and a well-organised system, LifeSpring is proving to be a long-lasting model with long-term social returns.
This business model works because of the organisation’s relentless focus on customers, not patients – pregnancy is not a disease. Its simple rooms are clean, bright and pleasant. In addition, standardisation – it is ISO 9001-certified – allows the network’s facilities to average eight times as many procedures as private clinics do. This increase in customer traffic allows LifeSpring to use its most expensive assets – doctors – more efficiently, so the network’s medical cost per patient is just one-fourth of what a private hospital charges.
LifeSpring’s network of hospitals provides high-quality, low-cost maternal services with clear and transparent pricing. At LifeSpring, expectant mothers pay Rs 1,500 to have a baby delivered. That is more than the official rate at public hospitals, which are supposed to be free though they often require payments, but only about a sixth of the price at a private hospital or clinic.

Future
Through LifeSpring’s model of small hospitals