Dr. Lal is a well-known name in North India. A friendly
neighborhood pathologist has created a new category of retail path labs. To the
uninitiated, Dr. Lal path labs attempt to provide standardized care in terms retail
healthcare. They are present across residential pockets, usually 500sqft -
1500sqft area; enough to create a waiting room for patients, inventory
management, technical staff.
It is quite organized in it’s layout, quite efficient in it’s
actual layout (hardly any space is wasted.) Usually led by a nursing staff
member, it has lab techs, cleaning crew, some assistants and to my best guess a
manager. They serve primarily as collection centers an the processing happens
at a central lab.
The phenomenal growth that Dr. Lal path labs has witnessed
is testament to a change in consumer behavior, from personalized to
standardized, in a developing economy such as India. While CVS exists and
Walmart may have it’s own health care staff through flu vaccinations, the choice there seems to be driven primarily by convenience and
lower prices. Dr. Lal Path labs, is a more luxurious service, relatively of
course, to the neighborhood pathologist. It is efficient, convenient and worth
a slight premium since it is “standardized” and is a brand.To me, DaVita Dialysis
is the closest format of retail chain of healthcare in the US.
What remains to be seen is whether, this format of retail healthcare,
will be propagated in other areas of healthcare in a transforming healthcare
landscape in India.
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