Bumrungrad Upbeat on Sales: Projects 15% Growth Due to Foreign Patients

By Charoen Kittikanya, Bangkok Post, Thailand

Mar. 12–SET-listed Bumrungrad Hospital Plc (BH) projects sales will grow by at least 15 percent this year, mainly driven by revenue from foreign patients and Thailand’s stable economic and political outlook.

According to Kenneth Mays, Bumrungrad Hospital’s marketing director, the company showed a healthy increase in revenue last year despite the country’s slow economy and the strong baht.

For 2007, the company reported consolidated revenue from hospital operations of 8.32 billion baht, a 9 percent increase from 7.65 billion in 2006. The rise was mainly the result of the continuous growth in hospital operations, of which inpatient revenue rose by 9 percent and outpatient revenue by 11 percent.

Total consolidated revenue for 2007 was 9.41 billion baht compared with 7.89 billion in 2006, an increase of 19 percent, primarily due to a sharp increase in share of profit from investments in associated companies to 854 million baht in 2007 compared to eight million in 2006, according to the company’s statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

Net profit last year totalled 1.6 billion, up 46.8 percent from 1.09 billion in the previous year.

BH treats more than 1.2 million patients per year, more than 430,000 of whom are international patients from many countries.

According to Mr Mays, the company’s continuing strong performance was also expected to be driven by the opening of the new 12-storey clinic building.

The new building was expected to increase the company’s OPD (outpatient department) capacity to 4,500 a day this year and 6,000 in 2011 from 3,500 now.

In a related development, BH yesterday introduced a complete packaging, storage and dispensing system that barcodes unit-dose medications onsite, with an investment cost of 58 million baht.

The fully-automated drug management system by Swisslog, often called a “Pharmacy Robot”, is the first of its kind in Asia.

The system will allow highly trained pharmacists and technicians to spend less time on routine tasks, and more time on patient care.

Automated packaging and dispensing systems for filling patient orders are becoming common in US hospitals as a result of increased public knowledge about medication errors. Bar-coding helps reduce medication errors during dispensing and administration.

A unit-dose drug is created when a single drug is taken from its bulk container and placed into a labelled package. Bar-coding of unit doses enables hospitals to implement bedside verification systems, whereby a nurse is assisted with technology in administration of drugs to patients.

“Our new clinic building is designed to double our capacity from 3,500 outpatients per day to 6,500, while increasing in-patient capacity by over 25 percent. This advanced Pharmacy Robot will allow us to provide efficient service to more patients, efficiently and safely,” said Bumrungrad International CEO Mack Banner.

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