BP Healthcare taps into demand for quality aged care

SHAH ALAM: BP Healthcare Group, which is working towards setting up a chain of hospitals, is planning to tap into the demand for quality aged care in Malaysia, said its director Datuk Chevy Beh.
"We're looking at setting up retirement or aged care homes, to complement the whole value chain. Combined with our integrated healthcare services and hospitals in the future, this would enable us to take care of the young, the middle aged to the old and the very old folks," he told SunBiz in an interview.
Beh said it is surveying several locations for its first aged care home and expects to open its first home in either Ipoh or Kuala Lumpur by end of 2014 or next year. The estimated capital expenditure is between RM50 million and RM100 million to set up each home.
"We've started looking at it already. The pricing depends on whether it is four-bedded, twin-bedded or single bed. The charges are different, with the average ranging from RM5,000 to RM8,000 per month. It also depends on what kind of services you subscribe to," he said.
He added that in order to reach economies of scale, the home would cater to between 50 and 200 residents.
"It's a huge one. It's not just five to 20 people, there would be no scale. Retirees looking for a lively community to live in would also not be interested if there are only five people."
Beh said the home would cater to all retirees, including disabled folks, those who need medical attention or those who simply want company.
"It will be backed up by BP Healthcare services including nurses, pharmacies and medical services. It's a natural extension of our business. Instead of people coming to us, we go to them and build an infrastructure for people to live in," he said.
The integrated healthcare services provider is also the first to set up a pharmacy offering online services, home delivery, 24-hour pick up and drive-thru services under its Lovy Pharmacy brand.
"Lovy Pharmacy is actually the dispensaries within our diagnostic centres, which are being converted into pharmacies. Some are additional new outlets but for some we carve out the space and put up a pharmacy within our centres," said Beh.
Although the pharmacy is catered to everyone, Beh said the convenience of the online services and home delivery is particularly beneficial to the elderly who may not be mobile.
"Logistically for the older folks, it makes a lot of sense. They can't see well or don't want to trouble their kids to buy medication. The drive-thru offers convenience. Sometimes the kids are buying on their family members' behalf during work hours, or they finish work late and the pharmacy is closed. With the online service, they just click to buy.
"We also have medication check up programmes for instance, you buy your medicine, they tell you to take it before or after meals but old folks may forget when to take. They don't need to physically come here, we have a webcam. They just need a webcam, click on it and the pharmacist is available. They can check on the dosage, efficacy and more," he added.
According to Beh, there are currently 50 dispensaries/pharmacies under the group, with over 20 already converted into Lovy Pharmacy. It aims to convert all 50 by next year. However, the drive-thru service is currently only available in Ipoh.
"The other places we're looking for, are when there is available space then we will do up all the drive-thru. So far, there has been very good reception for Lovy Pharmacy. I would like to highlight that this is a brick-and-click business model.
Brick as in brick-and-mortar, you can walk into a retail store and click as in online. So we coined the term brick-and-click," he said.
He said Lovy Pharmacy, which is more of a specialty drug store, is different from other pharmacies such as Guardian and Watson's where the actual pharmacy only occupies 10% to 20% of the space.
"We are only medicine based; no other businesses, we're not interested in that…we don't sell other items. We sell only drugs, OTC products and supplements, and monitoring products like gluco meters, blood pressure meters and others."