Principles of Marketing.

Naila Mirza Roll # 6533

SHAUKAT KHAANUM CASE STUDY

SUMMARY:
Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (SKMCH&RC) is known to be one of the best available cancer hospitals located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Its main purpose is to provide special care to cancer patients who are not able to pay for the costly medical tests and treatments due to limited income. It is a project of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, which is a charitable organization established under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860 of Pakistan. The institution was formed by Imran Khan, former captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team, and currently the leader of a political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). His mother, Shaukat Khanum, had developed cancer and it was then he actually felt the need to develop an institute which can help people who come across a number of problems when making full efforts to care for their loved ones diagnosed with cancer.

SERVICE BUSINESS STRATEGY:

As though the establishment of such a charitable organization is not special enough, the fact that it has continuously strived to maintain its mission and high quality service work is indeed an achievement to be proud of. Shaukat Khanum has been able to obtain such high standards with the help of a well defined business strategy. They made sure to have the best Pakistani doctors available, be it from any part of the world. Also, they identified the main reason due to which Pakistani hospitals were not able to reach high levels of service quality, i.e. nursing care. Trained nurses are not only difficult to find, but social taboos also prevented women of Pakistan from coming in to this field. Thus, the best nurses had been selected from different countries. State-of-the-art medical facilities and international medical practices had been set up. In order to constantly improve levels of satisfaction, regular feedbacks from customers and other sources are collected, analyzed and acted upon seriously. Also, an effort is made to learn from mistakes and not to repeat them in future. This can also be proved by the below mentioned creditable achievements: 1) ISO certification for 13 of its key departments by 2007. 2) Only 10% of negative feedback from patients. 3) The first to achieve Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) certification.

In spite of the above mentioned efforts to maintain its standards, there are some serious challenges that are faced by the hospital i.e. they have limited a limited capacity and are not able to accumulate Page 1 of 3

Principles of Marketing.

Naila Mirza Roll # 6533

each and every patient that comes for treatment. Thus, they make sure to admit only the patients that have a chance of being cured. But such a step does leave patients angry, frustrated and can also lead to bad-mouthing of the organization. Shaukat Khanum has taken several measures to tackle this issue, by having also a fair triage policy and also by keeping professional counselors who deal with such patients. So, all in all, Shaukat Khanum enjoys a very good reputation among its stakeholders, despite of knowing that it is not able to take all patients presented to them. Consequently, people are happy to contribute towards Shaukat Khannums mission to serve cancer patients having limited incomes.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
1) Donations should be made up to ones maximum capability in every possible manner. i.e. financially or through voluntary services etc. 2) Successfully cancer treatments should be highlighted. 3) Cancer awareness should be widespread through media, newspapers etc. 4) Different campaigns promoting the benefits of a healthy and active lifestyle should be started. 5) There should be a toll-free number on which patients can seek quick professional advice in case of emergencies.

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Principles of Marketing.

Naila Mirza Roll # 6533

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