Large hospital chains, as exemplified by their experience in cities like Delhi and Bangkok, are of crucial importance to the industry
There is a large number of factors that have contributed to the rise of medical tourism and its ascendance as an independent industry. A large part of it is owed to the initial investments of governments in destination countries. Another major factor is medical tourism facilitator agencies, and finally we have marketing and advertisement.
In the end however, none of these factors play a more crucial and vital role in the patient’s feedback than the performance of medical centers in the destination country. A patient might be face with lackluster accommodation, or encounter a negligent facilitator agency, or generally find the trip unpleasant. Ultimately, considering the medical nature of the journey, it is the treatment that decides the overall opinion of the patient.
Therefore, the role of hospitals in medical tourism is a inseparable and central one. Sometimes their impact is so great that a single hospital can singlehandedly carry a disproportionally large part of the medical tourism sector of an entire country.
The most important aspect and goal of the medical tourism industry is to facilitate and improve the treatment process. Therefore as the providers of this treatment, hospitals are an inseparable part of medical tourism
For example, Thailand, a country that dominates medial tourism in Southeast Asia, attracts 3 million medical tourists annually. The Burmungrad International Hospital in the capital Bangkok singlehandedly tends to more than 500 thousand of these medical tourists, therefore providing for close to 17 percent of the entire medical tourism demand in Thailand.
Hospital Chains and Their Importance
Hospital chains of are great importance to the industry. To exemplify, at the dawn of medical tourism in India, in the 1970’s, the industry even though supported by many high ranking officials including Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, failed to receive proper financial backing from the government.
The Thumbay Hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A successful example of a hospital chain exporting its experience to foreign borders.
It was in such a state that many of the Indian medical experts and doctors of the time who were not content with the demise of medical tourism in their homeland, rallied together and founded a number of private hospital chains in the private sector, dedicated to promotion of medial tourism. Without the hard work and extreme dedication of these hospitals, India not only wouldn’t have been the medial tourism power it is today, it probably would have even struggled to provide proper medical care for its own massive population.
In 2019 India attracted more than 8 million medical tourists, the Apollo Hospital chain alone was accountable for the provision of medical care to more than 20 percent of these patients across their different branches. Another Indian chain, The Thumbay, not only provides medical care across India but also has managed to export its product and found several medical centers in other countries including one in the United Arab Emirates where it is considered one of the best hospitals in the entire Persian Gulf Region.
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The tale of these two hospital chains in India further proves the capability of hospitals and their role in the medical tourism, to alone be a deciding factor in the industry. A country that 40 years ago was unable to provide effective medical services to its entire population, has now by the virtue of such hospitals become a medical tourism giant, while simultaneously helping medical tourism in another state through its medical export.
Fundamental Principles that Hospital Must Maintain in Medical Tourism
But what are some of the complementary actions that hospitals undertake to facilitate medical tourism and grow the industry?
Other than success in medical treatments, which is the obvious way of causing satisfaction in the patient, hospitals also improve their performance in the following ways.
- Price adjustment is one of the most important factors in attracting medical tourists to a country. Most active hospitals in medical tourism tend to be in the private sector. Therefore they can impose their own price regulations and create attractive medical packages in order to appease medical tourists and grow the industry in their country.
- A capable nursing staff. As stated treatment is the most important factor of generating satisfaction in medical tourists. But it is important to note that for the majority of their stay in a hospital, they mostly in contact not with the doctor, but with the nursing staff. Therefore having a competent and socially compatible nursing staff is quite important in the satisfaction of the patients.
- A fully operational International Patient Department (IPD). A critical pre condition that determines the success of medical centers in medical tourism is having a section exclusively dedicated to medical tourists and international patients. This section often has its own reception staffed with a socially compatible personnel that will prevent the patient from feeling alienated make them feel right at home. Another crucial task of the IPD section is summarized in the capability of its staff to speak in multiple languages. In the process of treatment, the correct transmission of information and data between the doctor and the patient is decisively important. Therefore at least some of the IPD personnel should be multilingual and if that’s not the case, the hospital must employ a fulltime interpreter in service of the patient. This will particularly impact the experience of the patient in a positive way and will lead to indirect advertisement through the word of the patient.
The most important aspect and goal of the medical tourism industry is to facilitate and improve the treatment process. Therefore as the providers of this treatment, hospitals are an inseparable part of medical tourism. But it should also be remembered that there are a myriad of other factors, the success of which will cause hospitals have an even more crucial and central role in medical tourism.
Article by: Parsa Khaknezhad
