Private hospital group Netcare is betting on an ambitious digitisation project to lure patients from its rivals and grow its business in an economy the Treasury forecasts will grow at a mere 0.5% in 2019.
Netcare's warned of a tough trading conditions in 2020. The private hospital group is expecting muted patient day growth in the next financial year, and Business Day spoke to CEO Richard Friedland about how the group plans to navigate that environment In a bid to differentiate itself from rivals Mediclinic and Life Healthcare, Netcare is collaborating with Apple, IBM Watson Micromedix, Capsule and Deutsche Telekom on the digitisation project, which is being piloted at Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg. Friedland said digitisation would improve the quality of care and relieve clinicians and nurses of the burden of time-consuming paperwork.