Case Analysis I: Mohalla Clinic: A Case on Healthcare Service Operations and Quality

Abstract

Corresponding author: Leena A. Kaushal, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, Haryana 122007, India. E-mail: leena.kaushal@mdi.ac.in An e-rickshaw driver from Dilshad Garden suburb of National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, Ramesh Kumar was tired of standing in long OPD queues at the government hospital for the treatment of his prolonged skin infection. This long waiting times was taking him off the road for long hours and negatively impacting his income. Also, getting treated at a private hospital was not an option due to exorbitant treatment costs. However, Ramesh felt blessed after the opening of a Mohalla Clinic (MC) close to his house in the Dilshad Garden suburb. MCs were the primary healthcare service setups started in the Mohallas,1 the innermost densely inhibited, yet unserved urban neighbourhoods of NCT of Delhi. Established under the Mohalla Clinic Scheme, 2015, by the State’s government, there were 300 such clinics offering free of cost diagnosis, consultation, medicines and pathological testing services to lowincome patients without a formal health insurance coverage. The healthcare operations of MCs had been backed by many innovations such as fee-for-service payment model for healthcare staff, portability of clinic’s infrastructure and adoption of innovative medical technologies for minimizing the patient turnaround time. These clinics had successfully reduced the out-of-pocket medical expenditures for the targeted households besides reducing the workload of secondary and tertiary service centers in the national Delhi. MC had earned recognition from global public healthcare experts as a scalable and sustainable healthcare model by achieving its goal of providing universal health coverage (UHC). Many other Indian states have expressed their interest in replicating the MC model of state-provided healthcare service delivery. Service package framework from analysing the service attributes of MC is presented in Figure 1. MC model had proved to be an effective healthcare reform towards achieving the goal of UHC in the NCT. The model had gained appreciation from public health experts functioning at both national and international level. Figure 1. The Proposed Solution.