Medical services business in 2022

Ukrainian e-medicine expects six-fold sales growth

The coronavirus situation has made adjustments to the private healthcare market: priorities have changed, but medical goods and services have become even more in demand.

Ulana Suprun's reform, which focused on automating the accounting of services and managing information electronically, has given impetus to the development of more than four dozen medical information systems, such as MediKit, Helsi.me, Doctor Eleks, and Medstar. They automate the work of medical institutions and specialists. "In 2021, we plan to grow six times," Ruslan Kravets, CEO of MediKit, shares his plans. He is confident that most of the patients' issues are resolved online: "When Privat 24 appeared, everyone said: why do we need online banking? 20 years have passed and most people no longer visit the branch. It will be the same with medicine."

How the online medical services business works

In MediKit, it works like this: a person has a medical problem that needs to be resolved as soon as possible. They go to the website, write down the problem, and the service finds a doctor based on this request. The doctor immediately consults online. The cost of such a consultation is 150 UAH, regardless of the specialist, his or her field of activity, and qualifications: The doctor receives UAH 100, and the rest is paid by the platform's commission.

Experts note that prejudice and unwillingness to pay for such services is partly still hindering the prospect of online healthcare reaching a new level, but Generation Z - current school graduates - is likely to use it by default.

How to motivate patients to seek medical advice online?

The risk of catching a virus (not only COVID) is high in clinics and hospitals. In addition, people are often too lazy to spend time going to the doctor. If the patient does not need a special examination or, for example, the help of a dentist (this is the case when an online consultation is not suitable), it is quite possible to get by with a remote conversation with a specialist.

Spread the word. Maintain communication with the audience on social media, explain that online consultations are safe and effective. Tell about specialists, their competencies, and successful recovery stories.

Develop a loyalty system: discounts based on the number of consultations, order amount, or a bonus system with an expiration date to motivate your audience to return.

Medical services and home massages

A new query that has appeared relatively recently but is rapidly gaining popularity is home healthcare services. Since the fall of 2020, users have been looking for nurses more and more often, and in the spring of 2021, this query was entered more than 240 thousand times. It's hard to predict how this query will change after the pandemic, but the trend is likely to continue, just as it is with online sales of goods.
The demand for the massage service has long been at the top of the list of search queries. But as expected, in 2021, the frequency of queries increased rapidly: from 500 thousand in the spring of 2020 to 2.4 million in the spring months of this year. Obviously, demand will not decrease significantly.

Accounting and control of services

The pandemic has affected many industries, and the service sector is also changing. Given the trends, it can be argued that automation is timely: it helps entrepreneurs to be flexible, control and analyze the entire trading cycle, and make changes quickly if necessary.
Automation of medical services with the Torgsoft program will help the entrepreneur:

• Keep records of complex services: a complex service requires the calculation of materials, in medicine it can be: cream, massage oil, cosmetic tapes, etc.
• Managing mutual settlements: payments from customers and services rendered;
• It is used to control the work of specialists, calculate salaries and bonus payments;
• Create an electronic catalog with a list and detailed description of services;
• Automatic sending of service contracts directly from the program;
• Documentation and timely submission of reports;
• In the analysis of business income, which will show which specialist and which service is in demand, which brings more profit and how the client base is growing. And the CRM system will help remind the client of upcoming procedures.

Accounting for services in Torgsoft is performed in the Trade mode with an invoice.
The program keeps track of sales. It records corrections to service invoices, how many customers have paid, and from whom payment is expected. You can remind the customer to pay, or change the price, take into account a discount, if necessary. At the same time, Torgsoft does not specialize in accounting for pharmacy drugs, since pharmacies require strict batch accounting, each batch is sold at its own price. When selling, it is indicated from which batch the goods are sold. When arriving, the batch is also indicated, which is not realized in the Torgsoft program.

Selling medicines, cosmetics and related products through an online store

Selling medical services online, you can simultaneously launch popular medical products, such as an elastic bandage, a contactless thermometer, an antiseptic, a massager - these products will be the leaders in 2022. The Torgsoft program can be synchronized with the online store, Prom.ua and Rozetka.ua marketplaces. Connecting with online stores will allow you to sell goods, manage order status, and send them via Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta.