AS the medical and dental services industry in Cebu get more competitive, more companies in the industry are focusing on strategies to get a bigger share of the market.
Strategies like making an establishment more accessible to potential clients, and thus capturing more direct foot traffic in the process.
This is what Prime Care Cebu did with the opening of their new center on Tuesday at the APM Centrale in Cebu City.
“We decided to place our facility in a mall so we can get a share of the market of walk-in clients,” said Jaime Gochoco, VP for finance of Prime Care Cebu in a press conference yesterday after the opening.
Walk-in clients account for only 10 percent of their total market.
The 680-square meter facility was formally opened yesterday although it has been partially operating since February last year after they transferred from their previous location in another nearby mall at the North Reclamation Area.
Their new headquarters is bigger than their former space which was smaller at only 306 square meters.
The facility is licensed as a one-stop shop by the Department of Health (DOH) for three years.
Its available services and facilities include diagnostic laboratory equipment, x-ray, ultrasound, minor operations, audiometry, dental and orthodontics, as well as plastic surgery, which was not offered at their previous location.
Gochoco added that with their new clinic, they hope to be more visible among Cebuanos as he said the company has been keeping a low profile since they started operations in 2003.
Tinna Aznar, Prime Care Cebu general manager, said they found it hard to look for their niche market when they started almost 15 years ago especially since there were other already established medical clinics in Cebu.
“It took us a while to find our niche which is more on corporate businesses,” she said.
Now, 90 percent of Prime Care Cebu’s market are corporate businesses that avail of their services for annual physical exams, drug tests, and pre-employment medical requirements.
Just last year, they were able to expand outside Cebu with corporate clients in Manila and in Mindanao.
They currently have 35 clinics within corporations all over the country, 20 of which are in Cebu.
In Cebu, they cater to pre-employment medical expenses for 90 percent of business process outsourcing (BPO) companies and they are also the medical provider and clinic manager of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA), QBE which is one of their biggest clients, and Lear Corp. which is one of their longest clients.
Prime Care Cebu also caters to on-site requests by companies with their mobile medical van.
The health care facility is also accredited with major health insurance companies
“We are the biggest mall-based multi-specialty clinic in the Philippines. It’s like a one-stop shop. We’re licensed by the DOH to be a one-stop shop. Our license is good for three years. It’s like a hospital, without the beds, in the mall,” said Prime Care Cebu President Dr. Peter Aznar.