Medical Tourism in denial
With the supply of medical tourism services increasing & exceeding patient demand,what should be done to succeed or which strategies should be followed by healthcare providers?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Roshan Shah on -
It is not the case that services are exceeding patient demand. It is just a matter of educating patients. Every industry starts like this so this is no different.
Patient is a consumer and should have options.
When it was IT Outsourcing shaping up back in 1990s, there was denial, fear, but now it is a common practice. It started with Body Shopping and look at what is happening in Medical field. We are exactly getting to that point that Indian Doctors (you can guage from Ads in Times of India) are now given lucarative offers to work in foreign countries. Also many countries have put Doctors, Nurses Permanent Residency applications on fast track!
And you can guess what will happen next :-)
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Permalink Reply by Annette Kremer RN on -
Cynthia, I just joined Medical Tourism and read your posting. I totally agree with you. As in so many other areas, education for the patient is lacking, in many areas. Especially in having options for health care. The younger population might be aware of Medical Tourism, but certainly not the so called "Baby Boomer" generation. That's where it's important to have people who can educate the enduser, put them at ease and guide them through the process, with a background of medical knowledge. It's a shame that so many people seem to think that they have only one option and no saying in their health care decisions. I feel that the choice is being taken away from them when they are not being presented with all the facts.
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Permalink Reply by Roshan Shah on
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Let me share a 2007 article from Forbes - http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/07/medical-tourism-emerging-pf-ii_ad_...
You will find in that article that Just 1 hospital in Bangkok - "Bumrungrad" had 66,000 American patients in 2006 and is seeing tremendous demand from the Middle East. In 2005, 70,000 patients came to the hospital, 13 times as many just five years earlier.
Hospitals that have embarked on Medical Tourism journey years ago are already reaping rewards and also are putting in huge marketing funds to stay ahead. New entrants can certainly take them on and they will take them on now with lot more transparency and ratings systems being built in Web Portals.
Are you coming to Medical Tourism Bootcamp of Ahmedabad ? http://medicaltourismbootcamp.kosansh.com - Small/Medium hospitals are now gearing up for Medical Tourism.
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Permalink Reply by Edward on -
This surely is a fantastic question.
If we look at educating consumers, this surely is a time consuming process. From the healthcare perspective I agree with what Cynthia and Roshan have to say.
Also, there is a huge gap in what the consumers are used to over the internet and what is provided by the service providers today. Mostly, what I have seen is "Your mail has been sent, we shall get back to you shortly." Is that the way we book an airline ticket? I agree that getting under the knife and buying an airline ticket is surely apples vs oranges, the point is, this is a gap. There could be many others.
Other than improving market presence, a few pointers towards a good strategy would be
- Improved processes and international certifications
- Higher focus on consumer delight than satisfaction
- Long term technology plans to lower the cost year on year
- Improved visibility for all consumers and prospects within your city/state of operation and outside your country.
Hope this helps.
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Permalink Reply by Dr Saurabh Kumar on -
To me the industry seems to be getting into a structure, the emphasis on certifications, patient education, promotion by the insurance companies and constant improvement in healthcare facilities in medical tourism hubs imply that the medical tourism industry is becoming organized. Therefore I dont see denial rather it would become more competitive with survival of the best medical service providers while the others wither away.
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Permalink Reply by Roshan Shah on
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You got it right. One way to do right it is to work with local government to promote health city concept. I am myself working on one such concept and then get the best doctors, facilities, etc in there. There should be lots of apartments nearby the health city where patients and their families can stay for few months at very affordable price. There are lot of other areas also to consider. Let me know if you want to go over this by phone. Would have been great if you could have been at Ahmedabad bootcamp of 10th Jan.
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Permalink Reply by Syed I Ahmed on -
I agree with Roshan, there should be a awareness created among patients, as to what medical facilty is available in which part of the world.
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