Choice of patients in medical tourism ...Let's listen to the voice of the patient.

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The recent Medical Tourism Climate Survey conducted by IMTJ for the European Medical Travel Conference 2010 provided an interesting insight into the current state of the industry and how people in the industry are thinking about medical tourism. The survey analyzed the views of over 250 people involved in medical tourism from 55 countries. One particular question that drew my attention was one that asked people in the industry about the factors that influence patient choice. The question was this:

"What factors do you think are important to medical tourists when they choose a healthcare facility or treatment provider abroad?"

Expertise and qualifications of the doctor/dentist ranked first. Comments and ratings by other patients ranked second.

It's the high ranking of "patient opinion" that surprised me, given the industry's apparent Roosevelt to "buy in" to the concept of patient ratings and reviews. Hospitals worldwide are investing large sums of money in accreditation and quality standards, sometimes as a marketing tool to attract patients and referrers. But very few patients have any idea what JCI accreditation means, or how this can help them to compare quality at different hospitals.

So, how are patients comparing competing destinations and healthcare providers?

The patients evolve into healthcare consumers, they are considering the purchase of healthcare in much the same way that they consider the purchase of any consumer good or service. And medical tourists are no different.

Let's consider the tourism or travel element of medical tourism and medical travel. When consumers are booking a holiday or a hotel, what do they do and where do they go to gather information that will guide their choice. To determine price and availability they visit travel and holiday portals online. Sites such as lastminute.com and Expedia attract massive volumes of traffic. And where do these consumers go to gather "opinion" about quality and services at their destination or hotel. Travel consumers want to hear from "people like me" before they buy .... which is why TripAdvisor has become one of the busiest web sites in the travel sector.

So, what are the options for medical tourists who want to hear from "people like me" before they buy? Many patients whether they are travelling patients or "stay at home" patients make extensive use of patient forums before they make a decision on treatment at home or abroad. Infertility treatment abroad is a good example. Take a look at the Fertility Treatment Abroad section of the FertilityZone web site, and some of the discussions that take place around the services provided by various IVF and infertility clinics abroad:

If you were a patient seeking infertility treatment abroad what would influence your decision more ...

The accreditation status of the clinic? The qualifications of the doctor?

I'm willing to bet that the views of other patients .... "consumer opinion" would be the major influence on your decision. (Obviously, for IVF treatment, patients would also be looking at outcome date/fertilisation rates published by the clinic). This seems to be the conclusion reached by the respondents in the IMTJ Medical Tourism Climate Survey.

So. .. why hasnt the medical tourism sector bought into patient ratings and reviews?

At Treatment Abroad, we were the first to enable medical tourists to rate and review overseas hospitals and clinics. At Medical Tourism Ratings and Reviews, patients can score these clinics and post their comments about the service and treatment received. To enable this, we invest heavily in Bazaarvoice, the world leaders in online rating systems to manage our new service. They make sure that only valid reviews make it on to our medical tourism reviews site. The moderators are well educated, trained and tested to ensure only appropriate user-generated content gets posted. Nevertheless, we are disappointed in the adoption of this reviews system by our clients.

When we promote the reviews system direct to patients and people who have enquired about treatment abroad, we get excellent take up. Patients are keen to share their experiences and benefit from other patients ' experiences. Similarly, some of our clients see the benefit of allowing patients to rate and review their services and actively encourage their past patients to visit the site and post a review. The system is free. It doesn't cost the client a penny extra to participate. But many of our clients are less enthusiastic about patient reviews.

Why is there Roosevelt to encourage patient reviews for medical tourism?

The most common objection from clients is that they are worried about negative reviews. What happens if the patient actually says something that they don't like?

Well, all of the hotels and holiday providers on Trip Adviser know, a negative review may affect their business negatively. Or will it?

On Medical Tourism Ratings and Reviews, we publish negative patient reviews, as long as they are not profane or violate other rules of moderation, such as raising litigation or malpractice issues.

Negative reviews are valuable patient

Negative reviews are of value to the healthcare provider and to healthcare consumers. Negative reviews show credibility – if there are nothing but 5-star reviews for your services, healthcare consumers get suspicious about the authenticity of the content.

Negative reviews also give objective feedback and help healthcare providers uncover blind spots. Perhaps there was a breakdown in the process or poor communication with the patient, or some misinformation in the description of your services on your website. Direct feedback from your patients is the most transparent way to uncover these issues and get them solved quickly.

When we publish a negative review on Medical Tourism Ratings and Reviews, we give the client the chance to respond – to explain what went wrong and to say what they are doing to put things right. Negative reviews which we reject and do not publish (but we do pass to clients) are also incredibly valuable. When patients are upset with your service or their treatment, they sometimes get angry, which can cause them to violate the terms of our review, use profanity, threaten legal action or go off on a tangent – all things that can lead us to reject the review.

Don't ignore negative patient reviews

It's important for healthcare providers not to ignore this information, because if you can uncover and solve a legitimate problem, and complete the circle, it makes it less likely that the patient will spread their rancour to blogs, forums, and other places where you are unable to see, control or address their comments .it's important for healthcare providers to review all negative content, so they can uncover service or system improvements to improve future patient interactions.

The message ... It's time for medical tourism providers to start actively encouraging patients to rate and review their services and to start listening to what patients have to say. Accept that sometimes things go wrong, that patients will be unhappy and will want to tell the world.

You may learn more from getting something wrong than you do from getting something right.

Do concerns about MRSA and hospital infection per unit patients abroad?

Medical tourists travelling abroad for treatment, simply don't do it to save money. In our soon to be published "Survey medical tourism", 56% of respondents who went to elective surgery abroad said that cares about the risk of MRSA infection/hospital NHS hospitals were a factor "very important" or "very important".

According to latest data from the health protection agency, there was a drop of 18 percent in cases of MRSA in England from July to September, compared to the previous quarter (April to June). This is a drop of about 230 cases per quarter. However, there was still 1072 cases reported in England in July and September 2007.

The latest figures c. difficile show that there were 10.734 cases in patients aged 65 years and over in England, reported in the third quarter of 2007. This is a reduction of 21% in the previous quarter. In patients between 2 and 64 years old, 2.496 c. difficile cases were reported in the third quarter of 2007.

Then .... There is some indication that the NHS is having some success in improving their bad reputation hospital infection. But there's an awfully long way to go. The United Kingdom is way behind countries such as Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain in control of MRSA infection rates and hospital. (See statistics MRSA in United Kingdom and Europe).

Until the NHS can reduce hospital infection rates for a minimum level, the concerns of patients will continue to be a factor in which people choose treatment in private hospitals in the United Kingdom or treatment abroad.

Wales .... the latest medical tourism destination for patients from the United States?

A recent news on CNN attracted my interest when presented a patient U.S. that traveled to Wales (United Kingdom) for breast surgery to save money. It was titled "' I can't afford surgery in the United States, ' says bargain shopper". Is an interesting story that shows how the media can sometimes put a viewpoint on a story to create news, but it does highlight some real opportunities for suppliers of medical tourism.

The story (see CNN video) tells us about Godfrey Davies, an American, who needed surgery of sinusitis. He tells how he "planned on a mission to find a surgeon accessible" and was shocked by the costs that he was going to incur in the United States. The story was picked up by a multitude of other web sites that took it at face value.

If you see the video, you get an impression. If you dig a little deeper, you really begin to understand the full story and where this patient fits within medical tourism market.

As a Brit, I found a bit strange when I viewed the video. My first impression? Here is a story about a guy American travel all the way to the Wales for surgery .... Why would he do this? And why Wales? But then I dug deeper. He was indeed a story about someone who started life as a "dude Welsh", became a guy "American" and went home for an operation. There is a track on your behalf (Davies ... is a Welsh surname) and your accent a little weird (is a Welsh accent). Godfrey comes from Wales. Is where your family lives. It is a United Kingdom and bearer of a U.S. passport. He married an American and became a u.s. citizen in 2002. He didn't have health insurance in the United States because he believes that the prize of $ 1000 per month in quotation marks is very large. He says that "with the relief and health, I would have to pay more in more than three and a half months than back home to Wales."

So what medical tourism companies learn from this story?

Firstly, don't take News at their nominal value. Sometimes there is a logic behind a news story that the media does not expose always fully. Can do less interesting news. In this case, it is understandable that a weight (as opposed to an American) can choose the Wales as a medical tourism destination.

Secondly, it highlights that one of the key factors in why people Select medical tourism destinations. Godfrey Davies chose Wales because it is an excellent game cultural, there is no problem of language for him and he feels 100% safe there. And it's cheap!

Godfrey went to the hospital in Bancyfelin Werndale IMC, Carmarthenshire. Is part of BMI Healthcare, a leading provider of independent healthcare with almost seventy hospitals and clinics throughout the country. To give another example, I myself had a total knee replacement in a hospital healthcare BMI near London, BMI Clementine Churchill Hospital. How much would it cost for the replacement of the knee in an American hospital? $ 50000. How much it cost me in the United Kingdom? £ 10000 all-in ($ 15000). The price of United Kingdom is cheaper than Korea ($ 17.800) and not far prices that Americans pay in countries such as Thailand ($ 12000) and Singapore ($ 10.800). Taking into account the cultural and language match and the lowest cost of travel, if you were an American destination would you choose?

Thirdly, it is a great example of the kind of American tourists doctors that some companies of medical tourism should be target .... people from their own country. Thus, the opportunity for a greater and more realistic u.s. Korea medical tourism providers based is more likely to be Korean Americans. Target the easy victory, if you want to succeed.

Fourthly, it supports the argument that the United Kingdom may actually be a medical attractive tourism destination for patients of the United States. Despite the different accent, there is no language barrier! There is a public health system that delivers excellent results. And there is a system of private hospital which already offers treatment for patients from all over the world who travel to the United Kingdom for access to quality health care and expertise. And. .... as demonstrated Godfrey Davies, you can save a huge amount of money on UK prices.

As the cost of special treatment in the United Kingdom?

In addition to treatment abroad, also we are UK several health information sites. One is Private Healthcare UK. He will tell you everything you need to know about the particular treatment in the United Kingdom.

If you want to know which particular treatment costs UK go to private hospital treatment-what does it cost? and select an operation.

And if you're an American (or weight) and intends to follow in the footsteps of Godfrey Davies, you can obtain a quotation for UK surgery by filling in the enquiry form for the treatment of private hospital, UK.

Practice makes perfect ... a message to medical tourism providers and patients

In the largest ever study of hospital mortality rates published in the United Kingdom, "mortality rates for emergency patients 6 percent jump when newly qualified doctors begin working. In the health service Journal reports that "the traditional first day for NHS doctors is the first Wednesday in August. The researchers found that patients introduced in hospital in the week before were more likely to survive .... researchers could not find a definitive reason for the higher mortality rate, but the beginning of August said was known as a "period insecure" in hospitals because of the influx of new doctors "

Now, what can we conclude from this?

I might suggest that doctors with more experience are better than those with less experience? Needless to say, really.

So, how this can help the tourist physician who is trying to make a decision about which doctor or specialist overseas to choose for your operation? The problem of the choice of patients in healthcare is a choice of a surgeon abroad or a surgeon in the internal market is the "How do I know that he is good?"issue. In the United Kingdom, we're probably ahead of the game in enabling patients to make informed choices about treatment. The NHS is site has been renamed "NHS Choices" and in recent years there has been a drive to expose data on clinical outcomes and hospital and the surgeon performance and make it freely available to patients.

One of the strengths of the UK health care system (and one of its weaknesses!) are that the large proportion of health care is provided by a health service provider-the NHS. This means that data about processes, results, performance and patient satisfaction enough are normalized, allowing for valid comparisons to be made between a hospital and another, between one and another expert.

Let's imagine that I need a knee replacement. Under the NHS, I can choose to go to any hospital in the United Kingdom, not just my local hospital. But suppose I want to stay quite location. Here are some things that I can access on my local hospitals through the NHS Choices. For each "quality factor", highlighted the best result.

Impressed? Which hospital you choose? Or which hospital would rule out of the question? The table above just scratches the surface of the data that is now being made available to patients. I also could compare the quality of the food, service levels, and so on. And I can also start making comparisons between individual surgeons.

Where does that leave the tourist physician? The reality is that there are few countries where this type of comparative information is available for the patient. And the reality is that different health systems often measure things in different ways, so that the comparison of results data of a hospital in Thailand with the data from the result of a hospital in India can be very difficult.

Thus, the tourist doctor probably need to do some basic questions about the hospital and the expert. One is a key measure of "How do I know that he is good?" He has "how many times have you done this before?" "Practice makes perfect" as the recent study demonstrates. Choose a surgeon with experience in exactly what you need. If you're looking for a replacement of the knee, choose an orthopaedic surgeon that knee replacements and almost nothing else. Do not choose an orthopaedic surgeon general ", which makes" everything under the Sun "-knees, shoulders, hips, feet, etc.

And ask the guy "how many you have done this year?"

Driving expense High UK dental patients abroad

In recent World health tourism Congress in Cyprus, it was announced the launch of the International Association of medical travel (TAG E RAG).

The TAG E RAG seeks to represent the interests of medical travellers and the medical travel industry, including health care providers and medical travel facilitators. The Association currently has 26 registered members worldwide. Dr. Steven Tucker, Medical Director of Clinical Cancer Center West Excellence in Singapor, is President of TAG E RAG.

How successful will be the organization in developing internationally accepted standards and codes of conduct for medical tourism. ... who knows?

The medical tourism market is very fragmented, consisting of many smaller players such as doctors, dentists and individual clinics and diverse groups of hospital and medical tourism facilitators. Still, there's a company tried to take a very significant proportion of the market. It is likely that those who take the lead in this rapidly emerging market will be the standard setters that others will follow.

Helping patients make the right choice of medical tourism

More and more people are using online assessments to make decisions about the products and services that they purchase. Consumers across the world want to hear from "people like me" before making a decision about which product or service to buy. TripAdvisor became the first place that many people visit when they are planning a vacation or book a hotel.

Therefore, tourists doctors would benefit from hearing about the experiences of others who traveled abroad for treatment? Undoubtedly, Yes!.

The Web is now the first place people look for clinics and hospitals research online before deciding where to go. Choose a doctor, hospital, or operation is a big decision and the views more that a patient can collect, the more secure, they feel with your final choice.

The philosophy of our business online is "helping patients make the right choice." That's why we launched just treatment abroad Ratings and analysis to provide patients with the "word of mouth" that will help them make the right choice of service desk doctor, hospital or clinic. We know from other areas of industry:

63% of consumers are more likely to purchase a vendor, if you have ratings and reviews.
77% of online shoppers use reviews and ratings when buying.
82% of people who read reviews said that their purchasing decisions are directly influenced by those reviews.

But how much confidence they can place people in reviews of these services? An agency desk doctor, hospital or clinic, physician or dentist may be tempted to anyone:

Create a fake review to promote your own service.
Create a fake review damage the reputation of a competitor.

We chose BazaarVoice as partner to our system of ratings and comments because of its ability to identify false reviews through algorithms that run review submissions, trace IP addresses of the reviewers, validation of email addresses and the experience of BazaarVoice moderator thousands of reviews for large customers each month.

We also warned customers and health care providers that any attempt to influence our reviews will result in immediate removal of reviewing all content.

Let's see how treatment abroad Ratings and analysis develops over the next few months. But we're sure will help potential tourists doctors to differentiate between the good and bad in terms of providers of services of medical tourism.