Possible Market Challenges

The main and the most evident challenge of the St. Petersburg healthcare market is an extremely tough competition. In accordance with the above mentioned numbers, the amount of commercial medical organizations is constantly growing. The most serious competitors are large multifunctional state hospitals, since they receive the majority of financial resources from the state, thus they are able to introduce the most recent technologies in their equipment, to hire the most experiences doctors-specialists, to continuously improve their operations to bring value for the customers. Insurance companies usually chose partners among multifunctional hospitals and clinics like these, in order to provide the customer with possibility to obtain all needed medical services in one place.

Despite the fact that significant investments in medical equipment and in the organization of the enterprise may seem to be the greatest challenge, the fundamental value of any medical organization is still the medical staff, whose professional and mental qualities are the hallmark of the clinic. The leader must create favorable working conditions for doctors, taking care of both professional development and corporate culture of the enterprise. Salary of medical personnel of the clinic is the major expenditure, which is almost impossible to reduce. Hiring highly professional specialists is also challenging, due to the acute shortage of medical personnel on the market. (Nikitina 2012.)

Less important and critical challenges are severities in renting a proper premise. As it was already mentioned above, rental costs for business premises are growing year by year and it is becoming almost impossible to find a good, spacious, well-furbished placement in a busting location, since it is either already occupied or the price is unaffordable. If the building is found, but it requires reconstruction, the difficulty of connection with communication lines (like gas, heating, hot running water) appears. There is a long queue to apply for those, the quantity of documents is enormous to gather, and also corruption takes strong presence in conducting these processes.

Another challenge for a HSC entering Russian Healthcare Market is importing medical equipment, instrument and materials. There is a compulsory procedure of registration and certification of any imported medical devices. According to the Order № 23 of January 23 1996, issued by the Russian Ministry of Health, it is prohibited to purchase and use foreign-made medical equipment in Russia without it being registered by the Ministry of Health. Upon registration, all imported medical equipment and devices are added to the National Register of medical equipment allowed for use in medical treatment in the Russian Federation. (Stockholm Region office in St. Petersburg 2010, p.31.)

Difficulties in administrative procedures related with entering and operating in Russian healthcare market are also challenging for foreign entrepreneurs. Administrative barriers have appeared in Russia from the time when compulsory licensing (issuance of state permits for medical institutions to carry out certain activities and services on the program of Mandatory and Voluntary Health Insurances) was established by the law "On Health Insurance in the Russian Federation" №1499-1 of 28 May 1991 of Russian Federation. Challenging administrative barriers related with the state control and supervision also take place during further business operations of the medical organization. http://www.csi-med.ru/news/64/

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 823