New Delhi: Hospitals looking to reduce revenue leakage must focus on retaining patient trust across the entire care journey—from consultation and diagnosis to treatment, discharge and long-term follow-up—rather than viewing individual visits as isolated transactions, healthcare leaders said at the ETHealthWorld Healthcare Leaders Summit.
During the session, “Plugging Revenue Leakage in Hospitals Through Structured Patient Retention”, moderated by Prathiba Raju, Senior Assistant Editor, ETHealthWorld, the panel highlighted clinical outcomes, experience, technology and continuity of care as key determinants of patient retention.
Dr. Sameer Kulkarni, CEO, L.H Hiranandani Hospital, identified conversion from outpatient consultation to inpatient treatment as one of the most significant areas of potential revenue leakage. For hospitals trying to identify patients at risk of dropping out, he prioritised three factors: “patient experience, clinical outcomes and the clinician.”
Kulkarni said structured retention requires technology to track the patient journey, well-defined processes and clear accountability for follow-up. Limited adoption and utilisation of electronic medical records, he noted, continues to make systematic tracking difficult.
Dr. Santosh Shetty, CEO & Executive Director, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, argued that tertiary care providers must move from episodic treatment towards a “continuum of care”.
For conditions such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, treatment does not end with a procedure. Nutrition, exercise, risk-factor management, teleconsultations, remote monitoring and follow-ups all form part of the longer journey. “Everything has to be evidence-based,” he said, stressing that engagement should never become pressure to consume unnecessary services.
Vipul Jain, CEO, C.K Birla Hospital, said losing a patient after the first interaction cannot be attributed solely to marketing, operations or clinicians. “I would say it’s my failure as the CEO of the hospital,” he said, emphasising the need for organisation-wide accountability.
For Jain, one of the strongest indicators of long-term success is when patients begin choosing a hospital because of recommendations and previous experiences. “It’s not patient retention; it’s almost trust retention,” he said.
Nitin Nag, CEO, Ujala Cygnus Hospitals, said the dynamics differ in smaller cities, where fewer alternatives make access and trust particularly important. “As long as the objective is to deliver good quality outcomes and build the trust,” hospitals can retain patients despite lower-cost alternatives, he said.
Dr. Sujit Paul, Group CEO – Zota Healthcare (Davaindia), brought the post-discharge pharmacy perspective, arguing that affordability of medicines remains critical to continuity of treatment. Hospitals, he said, must consider patients’ ability to sustain therapy after discharge rather than focus only on inpatient care.
His recommendation was particularly direct: “Stop giving targets to physicians” and focus instead on understanding patient affordability and outcomes.
Across the discussion, the message was clear: sustainable patient lifetime value is created not through aggressive conversion, but through better outcomes, seamless follow-up and trust that brings patients and their families back when care is genuinely needed.
