Vejthani in partnership talks with local, overseas hospitals

Such partnerships are in line with Vejthani’s strategy of cashing in on the Asean Economic Community (AEC) and to stir competition in the Thai healthcare sector.

Vejthani is a 263-bed private hospital providing a full range of inpatient and outpatient services, including 24-hour emergency care. It treats more than 350,000 people per year, including international patients from more than 40 countries.

Chief executive officer Dr Charkrit Soucksakit yesterday said the hospital had been approached by up to six local and overseas providers of healthcare services over joint ventures to expand their presence in the regional market.

Negotiations are expected to be finalised this year, with Vejthani’s own expansion expected to take place mainly in Thailand.

"We are looking at potential locations in Bangkok, especially in the eastern part, which shows strong growth in healthcare services," Charkrit said.

The AEC’s implementation in 2015 will allow both investment capital and other regional players to enter the local healthcare-service sector, he said.

"There are two things that we, as local players, can do: make our own organisation stronger to defend ourselves from the increased competition, or play the AEC wave by expanding into other locations and markets," Charkrit added.

He said that under the AEC, Thailand would remain the best destination in the region for medical tourism, thanks to the competitive advantage of medical and healthcare services in the Kingdom.

"The proportion of foreign patients, or medical-tourism clients, at Vejthani Hospital has increased dramatically from only 5 per cent four years ago to about 50 per cent today."

Vejthani Hospital expects to increase revenue by 40 per cent to Bt2 billion this year, driven mainly by patients from "new" markets such as Australia, New Zealand, Myanmar and the Middle East. Another factor is the introduction of new healthcare services such as a centre for gastroenteropathy and liver disease, as well as a cancer centre.

Charkrit said the hospital would invest about Bt170 million this year, mainly on upgrading its medical equipment and information system.

The hospital last year invested about Bt20 million in the purchase of the TrakCare information system from the US-based InterSystems Corp. The Web-based software applications have been implemented and allow the hospital to improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery and information access, as well as enhance the management of human resources, he said.

Assistant Professor Korpong Rookkapan, chief operating officer of Vejthani Hospital, said the upgrading of its information-technology system and electronic health records was in line with its road map to be the country’s leading digital hospital in the next three years.

This entails having a converged network throughout the organisation, and particularly across its inpatient and outpatient facilities, emergency facility, clinical services, data centre and surgery centre, he said.