Medical tourism will flourish when the destination country matches the home country in terms of fit and feel, but over delivers in terms of service and patient experience, all at a significant cost reduction to the home country.
Hence destinations that share cultural similarity to the USA, speak English as the first language, are safe and politically stable, with a recognized history of providing high quality health care that is also cost efficient, will be the long term winners.
Medical tourism is disruptive technology and hence is a long term play. It is also a reasonably complex offer with the buying decision needing to be aligned to a selling cycle, both of which are unique compared to the traditional health care model.
Hence destination countries and enablers based in the USA need to build credibility and confidence in the industry and at all costs avoid trying to make a quick buck. A low cost strategy as being the sole differentiator vs the US health care system may being appealing to some of the market. However the offer needs to be far more than that.
From what the US and Canadian patients who come to New Zealand comment; excellent service, in a world class health care system which puts the patient first (patient centric) at an affordable price (and not a Hobbit or Ork in sight) certainly is different to what they usually experience when accessing health care.
Now that has universal appeal.
I couldn’t agree more on your first paragraph’s argument. I beleive that the most important factor in developing this industry is high quality service to patients. And digging a bit deeper, as long as in-destination hospitals and clinics will always be meant to serve the local population and then get a few medical tourists now and then, the role of the medical travel specialist firm is extremely important. The importance for a tourist of choosing a local medical travel specialist, not just anyone who calls themselves facilitators in the real sense of “broker” is high. A patient’s moment of truth will be when she’s in-destination, and that’s precisely where local and responsible MT specialists add value. These have done all the homework for the patient and will be there every step of the way, not just call them up after they get back. The more this part of the industry develops, the faster the whole machine will be up-to-speed.
Gabriel Senior
Travel For Care
Monterrey, Mexico
http://www.travelforcare.com