UIB Healthcare Group Files IPO Prospectus Highlighting Differentiation Through Quality, Patient Satisfaction, and Pediatric Specialty Leadership

Centurium Capital, which has long maintained a “heavy position” in healthcare investments, is steadily enhancing its footprint and service capabilities in the fields of obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatrics.

In 2019, Centurium Capital made a controlling investment in UBaby Shanghai; in 2020, Centurium Capital completed its controlling investment in Beijing Jingdu Children’s Hospital and integrated the maternal and child healthcare assets in Shanghai and Beijing. Retaining the original name of the Shanghai entity, the new platform was named UBaby Medical Group.

Subsequently, Wang Yu, former Operating Partner at Grand Zhen Capital, was appointed CEO of Youaibei Medical Group. He led a small operational team to conduct comprehensive on-site engagements, penetrating from the “aorta” down to the “capillaries,” and delving into a series of initiatives including group resource integration, business restructuring, platform development, and enhancement of management mechanisms.

One initiative after another has been rolled out. Behind the full commitment to what may appear as a myriad of complex and trivial tasks, and to a series of strategic seminars, management and operational meetings, and business review sessions, lies the goal of enhancing the hospital’s long-term brand value as well as its social and economic benefits.

This is another typical case of Century Capital’s holding-type investment. On this path, Century Capital’s assistance to enterprises has never been superficial.

Today, U-Health Medical Group holds and operates multiple healthcare service institutions in Beijing and Shanghai, including Beijing Jingdu Children's Hospital, Shanghai Pubin Children's Hospital, Shanghai Ai'er Beijia Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, and U-Health International Postpartum Care Center. This has achieved comprehensive coverage in two aspects: full spectrum coverage from consumer health to serious medical care, and full lifecycle coverage for women and children encompassing gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics.

Looking ahead, how will UBaby manage and operate women’s and children’s healthcare institutions with diverse positioning and service offerings, and how will it chart personalized development paths for different platforms? In the crowded pediatric hospital sector, where does UBaby Medical’s “differentiation” lie? Recently, VCBeat spoke with Wang Yu, CEO of UBaby Medical Group, in search of answers.

In the field of women's and children's health, the demand for pediatric services is even more pronounced.

First,, although the “birth rate of <1” was announced after the introduction of favorable policies for third children, parents’ attention to their children’s health continues to rise; the rigid demand for pediatric care remains and will continue to grow;

Secondly, with the improvement of parents' personal medical awareness and the upgrade of residents' consumption, the demand for services and high-end medical care continues to rise. Patients have a strong willingness to pay, but public hospitals cannot meet these demands, providing development opportunities for private mid-to-high-end pediatric medical institutions;

AgainPediatric patients exhibit particularly strong loyalty, with a high level of trust and dependence on physicians. This high stickiness and positive word-of-mouth also drive patient volume for high-quality pediatric hospitals.

“To truly excel in children’s health management, it is essential to promote the development of specialized pediatric subspecialties.” With this in mind, UBaby places great emphasis on discipline construction. Following the comprehensive takeover, Wang Yu formulated a core development strategy for the UBaby Medical Group:Complement the development of public hospitals by pursuing specialization, identifying and developing disciplines with strong patient demand that public hospitals are either unwilling or currently unable to provide.

Taking hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) at Beijing Jingdu Children's Hospital as an example, HLH is a rare disease with a highly aggressive clinical course and significant treatment challenges, leaving very few hospitals capable of managing it. Since its establishment, Jingdu Children's Hospital has focused on this condition. Under the leadership of Dr. Sun Yuan, the hospital’s academic leader, it has developed a specialized treatment protocol for HLH, establishing itself as a first-class national center for the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric hematologic and oncologic disorders.

Under the strong influence of the hematology department, young professionals have continued to flock in, enabling the smooth development of related departments at Kyoto Children’s Hospital, including its laboratory and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).

“Disciplinary development follows a logical framework and serves as a driving force. With each component fostering the growth of the next, the hospital’s discipline construction becomes increasingly comprehensive and robust,” said Wang Yu.

Currently, Kyoto Children's Hospital has established 36 specialized departments, including Hematology and Oncology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Rheumatology and Immunology, Respiratory and Allergy, Emergency and Critical Care, Gastroenterology, Stomatology, and Ophthalmology, and possesses the capability to provide emergency rescue for critically ill children.

Shanghai’s hospitals differ from those in Beijing in terms of locational characteristics. As the only private specialized children’s hospital in Shanghai, Shanghai Pubin Children’s Hospital follows a distinct development logic.

Based on a survey of the medical environment surrounding Shanghai Pubin Children’s Hospital, UBaby Medical Group has charted a development path focused on mid-to-high-end service specialties. This includes departments with stringent quality requirements, such as child healthcare (developmental and behavioral pediatrics), otolaryngology, and surgical platforms. “Public hospitals are constrained by space, time, and staffing limitations, preventing them from providing child healthcare and similar services on a large scale. This presents an opportunity for Pubin Children’s Hospital.”

As early as the investment due diligence stage, Centurium Capital conducted a thorough assessment of the project and formulated a standardized, refined, and scientifically grounded post-investment operational management plan.

Following the investment, Youaibei Medical Group established a long-term objective:To become China’s leading medical platform, delivering the most cost-effective healthcare services to consumers while providing medical professionals with a career platform that enables them to realize their personal value.

Why is this professional development platform for healthcare workers being emphasized? “Because the shortage of pediatricians is too severe in the current medical environment.”

In July 2019, Pediatrics, the official academic journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, published a survey report on the current status of pediatricians in China. The report indicated that there were 135,524 pediatricians in China, but only four pediatricians per 10,000 children, with a turnover rate as high as 12.6%.

“The pediatric sector faces a significant supply-side talent gap, compounded by the siphoning effect of public medical institutions. As a result, Ucare Medical Group also confronts the challenge of attracting talent and building its workforce. ‘We aim to establish a robust platform that provides pediatric healthcare professionals with a fair work environment and a comprehensive framework for disciplinary development, thereby helping them realize their personal and professional value.’”

After listening to the concentrated appeals of medical staff, Youaibei Medical Group has implemented them into specific hospital management systems.

Youai Bei Medical Group has proposed the initiative of “supporting, empowering, and strengthening clinical departments.” By streamlining and adjusting its organizational structure, the group has established a two-tier management system at both the hospital and departmental levels under the dean responsibility system. This enables department heads to participate in discussions and decision-making regarding departmental development planning and investments in medical facilities and equipment, thereby creating a trustworthy platform for professional growth.

To deliver superior services, U-Health Medical Group has raised its standards for medical quality and service experience, incorporating medical quality and patient satisfaction into the annual performance evaluations of each hospital to ensure strict compliance.。

In terms of medical quality, U-Health Medical Group has engaged a team of experts specializing in the development of medical quality standards to establish evaluation criteria tailored to the unique characteristics of each hospital under its umbrella, along with implementing a scoring system. For instance, Beijing Jingdu Children's Hospital emphasizes the development of specialized disciplines, while Shanghai Pubin Children's Hospital places greater focus on mid-to-high-end medical services. Patient satisfaction is evaluated in a similar manner.

Since 2019, Ucare Medical Group has achieved phased results.

Taking Kyoto as an example, outpatient visits in June this year—traditionally a low season for pediatrics—have reached the peak level seen in December 2019, with nearly 38,000 visits. Weekend daily outpatient visits exceeded 2,000, setting a new historical record. From a patient perspective, there is a noticeable increase in the number of new patients, along with varying degrees of improvement in both the retention rate and visit frequency of patients who had previously sought care at the hospital in prior years.

In August this year, in Forbes China’s “2021 China Maternal and Child Industry Rankings,” Beijing Kyoto Children’s Hospital and Shanghai Ubaby International Postpartum Care Center, both under the UBaby Group, were listed among the Top 10 in their respective fields, earning industry recognition.

Amidst the wave of digitalization, Ubaby Medical Group is actively embracing new technologies. Currently, Ubaby Medical Group is preparing to build an internet hospital platform centered on patients, integrating online and offline medical experiences to enhance patient satisfaction. Meanwhile, this platform will also serve as a patient data platform, enabling the sharing of health management information within the Ubaby Hospital Group system and providing full-lifecycle health management for children, accompanying them as they grow.

In the future, Youaibei Medical Group will continue to seek high-quality acquisition targets centered around its affiliated medical institutions. In addition to building core hospitals, it also aims to establish a network of “satellite clinics” within the Youaibei system.

From Wang Yu’s perspective, on the one hand, Youaibei Medical Group can increase the service density of high-quality medical resources within its system by empowering these healthcare institutions; on the other hand, these new institutions can also serve as entry points for Youaibei to acquire user resources overall.