Which department or service in a hospital will you recommend to be outsourced and why?

It is not as if the same departments or services are the right ones to be outsourced by any and every hospital. This decision has to be based on the specific situation faced by each hospital. The question provides no such information that is needed to make a meaningful recommendation of this type.

However I will give below the main criteria that should be taken into consideration for taking decision of this kind.

• The objectives and priorities of the hospital in terms of the services to be provided by it. A hospital may provide medical facilities for a very wide range of health problems, or it may specialize in some special area such as obstetrics, orthopedics, or ophthalmology.


• The level of operation in terms such as number of beds in hospital or number of patients to be treated per day.


• Capital and other resources available for setting up facilities for different departments or services.


• Availability of suitable alternate medical services of different types. This will also include the consideration of adequacy of such services and their cost.


• Criticality of having a particular type of service to the patients of the hospital immediately and conveniently.


• The expected utilization of the facility by the hospital. If a very expensive medical facility is utilized less than 10 percent of optimum utilization, it may be better to outsource such services.