Hospital Support Services Outsourcing – The Know How

The fact that outsourcing hospital support services is an economic proposition for hospitals is now well established. It is no longer a matter of debate whether or not outsourcing is a good idea-in principle. However, the lack of know how of this useful, but tricky tool deters many hospital administrators from using it to deliver the goal of providing quality healthcare services at optimum costs. The Business Process Outsourcing in India has arrived in a big way and has fine-tuned their methodology to their advantage. Despite several successful examples of healthcare outsourcing in India itself, risk-averse hospital administrators are still dithering, and rather have adopted a wait-and-watch policy. In this paper it will be endeavored to explain the methodology of outsourcing support services in hospitals based on experience of various authorities at different hospital set-ups. The methodology thus explained can help the hospital in delivering quality services at optimum cost. However, it is reiterated that adoption of outsourcing has to be tempered with a lot of practicality in order for it to be successful. The paper also deals with various medicolegal issues arising out of outsourcing especially during outsourcing of forensic services.