Baxter-Hillrom strengthen their strength in the hospital industry

Baxter’s integration process with Hillrom, acquired at the end of 2021, is confirming that their portfolios truly complement each other and is allowing Baxter to find new business models and strengthen its position in the very active hospital sector by supplying needs in a more comprehensive than before.

In the case of Mexico, this purchase has meant for Baxter to integrate 1,200 new employees this year for a total of 3,200, as well as two additional manufacturing plants in the north of the country -one in Monterrey and another in Tijuana-, which are added to three others that Baxter already has in Morelos, State of Mexico and Tijuana. At the same time, it has meant being able to offer a broader range of products and services to patients, doctors and hospitals based on digital health tools throughout the care process.

This is how Carlos Humberto Escobar makes us see it, who a few months ago became general director for Mexico, Central America, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, and it is his turn to lead said integration. He estimates that it will continue to grow above the market, which will close this year with a projected expansion of between 3 and 4%.

He says that Hillrom is supremely well positioned in Mexico and is helping them not only to strengthen their presence in hospitals but even to permeate the direct retail market, sales to doctors.

“Today almost since you set foot in the Hospital you are using a Baxter product; Since the patient enters the emergency area, they make the diagnosis, they put an IV bag, an infusion pump and stabilize him, he is having contact with some Baxter equipment or device”, he comments referring to the stethoscopes, stretchers and beds, pressure monitoring devices, electrocardiograms and the entire range of products and solutions that they added with Hillrom.

“If you need to enter the surgery room, we have furniture, lamps and many solutions there. If you go from there to hospitalization, the beds are Hillrom, now from Baxter, and the entire infusion system, fluid management is also provided by Baxter. We have generic oncology medications that are also applied during the hospital process. And if unfortunately you incur kidney disease, we have all the acute kidney care equipment that we can continue to provide at home with home delivery.”

Interviewed by El Economista, the manager who returned to Baxter last June, since in a previous period he had been director of the Renal Business Unit in Mexico, shares his enthusiasm for the integration process and tells us how interesting learning is involving them that empower the organization more, such is the case of the different form of sale. Baxter has managed rather under the commodatum scheme where he provides the infusion pump free of charge and the client purchases the consumables, but Hillrom makes conventional sales, for example, of beds – the product for which it is best known.

Hospital industry, one of the most active

In this sense, he mentions, it is necessary to apply financing in the purchase of equipment and accompany the hospital from its construction or in the renovation of its infrastructure, elements that were not what we were used to”.

He comments that they detect a great movement in the hospital industry in Mexico, each company with different strategies, but all agree that there is a growing demand for their services.

And he has had to visit the constructions of several hospitals, from the new tower of Grupo Ángeles in Monterrey and the new projects that they bring in Guadalajara and Querétaro; they also actively participated in the recently opened headquarters of Avenida Universidad in Mexico City. Muguerza also wants to expand its capacity, there are hospital groups like MAC that are entering the new segment, and there are new investors like a Peruvian group that bought a hospital in Monterrey.

The great advantage, he adds, is that “the brand positioning that Hillrom has in hospitals is wonderful;” Even so, they do not have a corner on the market, so they see ample growth possibilities. In this sense, he points out that even with the private component that Hillrom brings, 80% of sales are focused on the public sector and 20% on the private sector.

He comments that the potential for connectivity with many of his teams going forward is enormous. For example, the software that allows all the monitors, such as pressure, electrocardiograms, and even beds that have temperature and pressure sensors to be connected to the nursing station, and that allows patients to be removed from hospital more quickly.

Connectivity drives comprehensive hospital offer

“Imagine the connectivity this has going forward with a lot of our teams. And we see in the future that just all the software can talk to each other, that they can give more information to the caregiver, and there we are going to complement a more comprehensive offer for hospitals”.

He explains that with the merger, Baxer integrates three additional business lines: One is monitoring and diagnosis that includes stethoscopes, pressure monitors, bracelets, exercise bands to perform electrocardiograms and other ophthalmological and diagnostic technologies. Another is that of beds, which includes smart beds and mobility solutions, and a third is that of surgical solutions (surgical tables, towers and lamps).

All of this is added to Baxter’s traditional portfolios: surgery (hemostatic sealants to reduce bleeding), the whole issue of inhaled gases (biopharma solutions), the clinical parenteral nutrition lines, as well as the area of ​​pharmaceutical products (some oncology). and everything related to kidney care, which, in turn, covers 3 lines: hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and acute kidney injury, which is another technology. Finally, the entire infusion system, which is the serums plus the infusion pumps.

At a global level, he explains that the portfolio that generates the most income for Baxter is medication delivery, which includes everything related to infusion systems. In Mexico, the renal area is much larger, but followed by medication, and the others are smaller lines.

The idea, he adds, is to take the company into the future, where they can further develop units that represent lower sales but have a lot of innovation behind them. This is the case of nutrition with the ‘ready your use’, where they have just launched a unique product called Numerza, of parenteral nutrition for children that offers a lot of value for the pediatrician in the management of his patient in the Intensive Care Unit or in hospitalization general.

Parenteral nutrition, taking it to another level

“My focus is on continuing to grow at a good pace in the next 2 years those lines to which we have traditionally not given attention and balance our business more, integrating that Hillrom portfolio that will help us boost our sales going forward,” he underlines. . He points to the area of ​​parenteral nutrition that has the greatest potential and requires the most attention, saying he is sure he will be able to take it to another level.

Speaking of hospital care in the future, Carlos Humberto sees that there should be a growth in home care with the growing telemedicine and a strengthening within hospitals in terms of connectivity, digitalization, greater analysis and data interconnectivity. “The whole topic of Acquisition Intelligence is going to play an important role in the future, you can cross different data for the same patient and you will be able to diagnose better, it is part of that future, connecting more equipment with hospital monitoring systems, it is towards Where is the future of health systems?

– Are there already conditions in technological terms for greater home care?

-I think so. I share with you, the technology that we have in peritoneal dialysis, which we send to patients’ homes, has the possibility of connecting via Wi-Fi with the doctor, and the doctor being in CDMX can monitor a patient who is in Tijuana, with a lot of information from the patient. He can know how many changes were made, if they were complete, how the liquid exchanges were, and even call him and ask him why he did not connect a day before.

In this regard, he reports that they are conducting a study with the IMSS Foundation with this type of technology, and with the ISSSTE they are working on a pilot using this home monitoring technology, this topic on the internet of things where the equipment begins to be connected every day. ease to do more and more home care, and that’s where the road goes.

maribel.coronel@eleconomista.mx