Imagining Medical Travel’s Future
May 12th, 2008 by -- the moderator
I woke up today and imagined the following news story …
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 15, 2008) — The World Medical Tourism Council today announced the release of the first International Patient Handbook, a comprehensive guide to international healthcare that rates every doctor, surgeon, dentist and medical facility in the world. The handbook lists prices for procedures and surgery that are all-inclusive and guaranteed for a year.
Simultaneously, the council launched a website that scientifically matches patients with the best medical professional for them, based on a consumer profile that takes just 10 minutes to fill out. Consumers can browse the experiences and case histories of every patient their surgeon ever operated on.After being matched with a doctor on the site, a patient can schedule a video interview, book appointments and surgical dates and find appropriate and discounted accommodations and flights. Consumers can also make arrangements for passports and visa, get advice on what to pack, hire babysitters if they need childcare and book dinner reservations for their stay abroad.
Patients with health insurance are eligible for cash bonuses ranging from $500 up to $10,000 just for using the site, depending on what care is required, if their insurer or HMO is an affiliate member of the council. Patients without insurance may be eligible for sliding-scale discounts on the already low fees, paid for by a U.S. insurer’s fund earmarked for reducing expensive emergency room care costs and promoting wellness and preventative care …
Perhaps it was a waking dream and I shouldn’t confess to having those while driving. There is no such thing as the World Medical Tourism Council, of course; and a worldwide database that ranks medical professionals and matches them to patients is purely the stuff of science fiction. There is no such thing for even a single hospital, let alone for the planet. No cash bonuses for insured patients who choose medical travel are available, though the idea is not entirely a fantasy. Various theorists and economists have speculated that U.S. insurers may eventually offer incentives to patients to choose medical tourism, both to compensate the patient for inconvenience and accepting a perceived risk and because the savings to the insurer when a patient chooses care abroad are so large that it is worth offering financial encouragement.
But if you look around the Internet — there is nothing in my fictitious news story, my waking dream, to which the medical travel industry does not aspire.
Executives of hospitals, doctors and dentists who run clinics and outpatient facilities and companies that provide medical travel services — if they are any good at all — are well aware that prospective patients can become, well … impatient, when it comes to figuring out whether becoming a medical tourist is right for them, and how to do it.
BridgeHealth, as an example, is a company that endeavors to match prospective patients with appropriate doctors, surgeons and dentists based on the patient’s medical condition and history. They can aspire to do it for the world but, practically speaking, they do it one hospital, one doctor, one surgeon at a time, over a period of years. The company’s web site reflects that — as so will this blog, over time. Some of this is science, some of it is art. It is doubtful that the human element can be removed from the equation, nor would patients want that.
As a medical traveler, what has been your biggest frustration? Chances are, it is — or has been — finding the information you need to make informed decisions and getting timely answers to your questions. How about for insurers and medical providers? Again, chances are, the biggest frustration has been in communicating with patients — getting the information you need to assess and care for them properly, giving them the information they need to make decisions.
There may never be a “World Medical Tourism Council” or anything like it; and I’m not sure we would like it much if such a beast actually arose. Too much power in too few hands, perhaps. But how do we shrink the communications problems, filter information better? The floor is open, but I’m going to do my best to get some BridgeHealth employees and providers to chime in, here.
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May 12th, 2008 at 11:58 am
How do you know anything about these hospitals really? How can you find out if they are certified like American hospitals?
May 13th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Going from what is the “same” about overseas hospitals to what you may find as “not the same,” I’ll start with the technology and equipment. This is usually the same – Seimans, General Electric, etc. — with biomed departments in place that calibrate and do quality indicators on the equipment.This “sameness” also often exists within the practitioners’ training, which is usually about the same length of time as in the U.S., although sometimes it is more and infrequently it is less. Often, we also find overseas practitioners who have returned to their home countries after training in the U.S. and some have even had practices in the U.S. for years. For example, The CEO at Bangkok Hospital practiced in the U.S. for 16 years before returning home to Thailand.
Overseas hospitals, in increasing numbers, are seeking accreditation because they see it as a means of assuring medical tourists that they can get western quality healthcare at affordable prices without sacrificing quality.. The overseas hospitals our group selects must meet standards that are set by The Joint Commission International (JCI) or be within one year of their accreditation survey by JCI or a similar organization that has equal or greater requirements. An additional benefit that surprises many going abroad is the five-star quality of the medical facilities.
Employing nurses as travel care coordinators, who have worked in U.S. healthcare facilities, have participated in many Joint Commission surveys and have traveled abroad to visit destination hospitals, strengthens our ability to reassure the clients who contact us. These nurses can spot clinical areas in overseas hospitals they visit that may not be quite as tight as they are in U.S. hospitals. One example might be an overseas facility that isn’t checking U.S. patients for latex allergies because that problem isn’t one that has stood out overseas. We can put something in place to reduce the risk of a preventable allergic reaction to rubber.
Another difference is that U.S. patients access both public and private healthcare facilities. The network of our partner providers overseas is always from the private sector.
Overseas hospitals that are willing to move as close as possible or beyond U.S. standards and the requirements we have given them are the ones we usually choose to become part of our premier group of destination facilities. In five years we have seen an increase in the numbers of English-speaking nurses within our partner hospitals, an increased awareness of the special needs of traveling patients and an overall eagerness to comply with the broader recommendations set forth by JCI.
Stephanie Sulger, RN,MS
VP Consumer Division
BridgeHealth International
May 31st, 2008 at 3:36 pm
While the JCI can serve some purpose to accreditation, Thailand already had accreditation by a national group that was equal to or exceeded what JCI demands on the medical front. The debate can rage on and on whether these overseeing groups were as stringent as the JCI. Stepahanie has given you a good overview of what is happening to certify overseas hospitals to satisfy the fickle and uninformed american populace. I will say that most hospitals in the US would fail JCI accreditation as they are now.
I was in Samitivej Hospital in Bangkok receiving dental treatment when they were being “inspected” for certification. The hoops they were being made to jump through seemed absurd and unnecessary (no music in the dentist’s office). I can say from first hand experience and related stories from clients that the hospitals we at Patient Vacation have inspected and affiliate with would have no problem in any comparison with those in the US. Any discussion of JCI accreditation should include the fee they charge for their “inspection service”. As best I can find out that fee is between $300,000 and $400,000 per hospital. While accreditation may or may not impact positively on the hospital it definitely has a positive effect on the coffers of JCI.
Robert Cooper
Patient Vacation, LLC