Q: Would you please introduce Joint Human Marketing and its business model
A: Through the innovation of information and technology in 1990s, the world has entered so-called global economy where the industrial society was replaced by the knowledge-based service one. The medical service industry provides all sorts of services about science and technology applied for forecasting, relieving and treating diseases as well as maintaining health, which can be the most catering for the knowledge service society.
Joint Human Marketing (JHM) is a consulting firm for hospital management. Precisely speaking, today’s hospitals have a lot to deal with unlike in the past including personnel, tax, medical disputes, management of staff and public relations. From old times, I really want to make a sensational business model by establishing a company with a group of experts.
Hospitals need to adapt to fast-changing times. JHM is seeking a new trend of hospital management by creating an environment where medical teams can put more efforts on caring patients.
JHM intends to make a contribution to the development of the medical industry in Korea at home and abroad. Domestically, it promotes enhancing the quality of hospital services via consulting about the management and marketing of local hospitals and internationally, it pursues advancing into overseas markets and attracting foreign patients.
To this end, JHM aims for Korea’s best management service organization (MSO) for hospital and offers consulting on administrative works in general like promotion, marketing, labor and accounting as well as its advance into overseas markets.
Q: What do you think about the recently changing paradigm of Korea’s medical community
A: With the physical economy in Korea worsening and its market conditions changing, there come new challenges in the medical industry. The informational asymmetry in the medical area has been mitigating due to the Internet and knowledge information, so it has become difficult for the medical service to be provided by the doctor-driven medical system like in the past.
Now is the time to foster new engine of growth in the healthcare industry and research the way to secure competitive edge in the global market. Moreover, it is likely to lose our potential of growth unless we take an aggressive action and strategy in response.
In the past, the medical service was recognized as a special area, so it was possible that the medical service was encouraged by the government’s policies to make rapid progress in no time and several medical communities like dental medicine, ophthalmology and plastic surgery already achieved international competitiveness.
However, the best medical technology has no guaranteed best medical service. In order to make the management of a hospital successful, there are many requirements to deal with like finance, personnel, tax, medical disputes, training, promotion and marketing. On top of that, the number of hospitals is increasing exponentially. Hospitals are forced to adapt to the rapidly changing times.
Q: Is there any suggestion for Korean hospitals to survive under the new paradigm
A: Today’s Korean medical services are based on western laboratory medicine in the 19th century, and they are the result of Korea’s unique medical environment where western medical science and traditional oriental one exclusively developed with a health insurance system. What the patients want is always simple.
They want to be cured, live a health and long life and get pretty. As for those need, Korea’s medical service has already given answers. Nonetheless, the problems like small-sized domestic market, lack of fund in the medical area and excessive regularities have limited the capability of human resources and made the commercialization hard.
The time when one doctor with magnificent proficiency can do everything has already gone. The close combination among a hospital’s medical team, system and management can only make the sustainable growth.
If you set a model for long-term growth, gather superior human resources to make the model realized and invest adequate fund, it is possible to make a prospective hospital. It is also imperative that the Korean government and related authorities should improve the system of the medical industry to develop the medical service in Korea.
By Lee Jae-seung
