Industry: Multi location diagnostics & outpatient care
Stage at Engagement: Regional chain, 12 locations, planning further expansion
Consulting Focus: Operations standardization, revenue cycle management & expansion readiness
Engagement Length: 12 months
As this diagnostics and outpatient care chain grew from a handful of clinics into a 12 location regional network, growth had outpaced its operating model. Annual revenue across the network was approximately ₹92 crore, but net profit was just ₹3.7 crore, a margin of roughly 4%, well under what comparable regional players typically carry.
Each location had developed its own way of scheduling, billing and managing patient flow. Insurance claim denials ran at around 18%, well above a healthy benchmark, while average patient wait time across the network was 42 minutes. Leadership had genuine concerns about whether the model could scale to the next ten locations without those inconsistencies multiplying.
The engagement started with a site by site operational audit to map how patient intake, scheduling, billing and claims processing actually happened, not how policy said they should happen. This surfaced a small number of root causes behind most of the inconsistency.
Those findings became the basis for a single standardized operating playbook covering intake, scheduling and revenue cycle management. The playbook was first piloted at three locations before wider rollout, creating a consistent approach to healthcare operations across the network.
In parallel, the team worked with the organization’s finance function to redesign claims follow up and denial management. A lightweight scorecard was also built so leadership could see performance gaps across locations in near real time instead of discovering them at quarter end.
The focus was not only on improving existing clinic operations. The work also addressed whether the operating model could support further healthcare expansion without allowing differences between locations to grow.
By standardizing patient intake, scheduling and revenue cycle processes, the organization had a clearer operating framework to carry into new locations. Performance could also be compared across sites through the same scorecard rather than relying on individual location practices.
Twelve months on, annual revenue across the network had grown to approximately ₹124 crore, up about 35%, including the contribution of four newly opened locations. Net profit grew even faster, to roughly ₹9.3 crore, lifting the margin from 4% to about 7.5%.
Insurance claim denials fell to around 13.5%, a drop of close to a quarter, directly improving cash flow. Average patient wait time dropped to 24 minutes, while the gap between the best and worst performing locations narrowed sharply.
This was a strong signal that the standardized playbook, not individual site leadership alone, was now driving performance.
Revenue growth: ₹92 crore → ₹124 crore, up 35% over 12 months, across 12 → 16 locations
Profit growth: ₹3.7 crore → ₹9.3 crore, up 151%, with net margin increasing from 4% to 7.5%
Claim denial rate: 18% → 13.5%, a drop of approximately 25%
Patient wait time: 42 minutes → 24 minutes, a reduction of 43%
The engagement brought together healthcare operations consulting, process standardization, revenue cycle management and expansion readiness to address the operational differences that had emerged as the network grew.
The objective was to create a more consistent way of working across locations, improve the revenue cycle, reduce patient waiting time and give leadership greater visibility into performance as the organization continued to expand.
For multi location healthcare organizations, growth can create operational differences faster than leadership can see them. Standardizing the right processes can make it easier to maintain consistency while adding new locations.
Vivek works with healthcare organizations on operations, growth and expansion challenges where the existing model needs to become more scalable.
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