82% of population in India prefer consulting diagnostic centres when considering preventive health checkups versus only 18% to a hospital, said Ekincare's report. The report also indicated the fact that consumers experienced long wait times 56% less frequently at diagnostic centres. "The modern health-seeker relies on speed, transparency and control, and diagnostic centres are meeting those expectations more reliably than hospitals," said Kiran Kalakuntla, CEO and Founder of ekincare. Additionally, 71% of reports delivered in under 48 hours from diagnostic centres, compared to just 47% from hospitals. Furthermore, only 3.3% of diagnostics centres reports had errors, versus only 4.4% of the hospitals.
What Did The Study Say?
The research relies on appointment and ratings data collected across India's top five metros (Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Pune, and Hyderabad), which account for 75% of the country's diagnostic volumes. It provides a comparison of customer satisfaction, accuracy, speed, and service quality between diagnostic centres and hospitals for all service types, including annual checkups, pre-employment screenings, lab tests, etc. "What we are observing is a structural shift in how preventive healthcare has been delivered and consumed in India," stated Kiran Kalakuntla, while noting, "The modern health-seeker values speed, transparency, and control and diagnostic centres have been able to meet their expectations with greater consistency than hospitals." In terms of customer satisfaction ratings, diagnostic centres also had higher ratings with 81% of visits receiving a 4-star rating or higher (79% for hospitals). Additionally, diagnostic centres had also received 56% fewer complaints around long wait times and 33% fewer complaints around unsatisfactory staff behaviour.
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Importance Of Regular Health Checks
Regular health screenings may assist in finding out the early warning signs of disease or illness, such as, heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers that we frequently are able to treat in the early stages. At the time of an examination, your doctor will review your health history, your family health history, and your lifestyle. Lifestyle factors include your eating habits, your weight, how active you are, and whether or not you smoke or drink alcohol, or use illegal drugs. If you have high risk factors, your chance of getting a certain illness is higher if it runs in your family. Regular health checks may help your doctor identify early warning signs. If you are at high risk of a health condition, your doctor may recommend earlier and more regular health checks. There are some common tests, but your doctor will usually suggest other tests depending upon your individual circumstances.
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Conclusion
Preventive Health Checkups (PHC) improve early recognition of people with disease, and they will intervene earlier, which makes for better health outcomes. Having regular check-ups helps with the identification and management of chronic disease, which reduces morbidity and mortality in high-risk populations.