Thinking About Medical Travel: Part 2

Posted on: 08-10-2015

A Look at the Medical Travel Industry

In certain industries there has to be a level of collusion between competitors within the market. There may be many reasons for this but the need to retain and improve industry standards ranks among the most integral. What I mean by this is simple, by not respecting the industry you operate in and providing sub-par products or services, you do not
just ruin your own reputation but that of the industry. This is abundantly clear with medical travel and tourism.

In the medical tourism industry, where a customer experience is absolutely vital, one bad experience can do irreparable damage. Word-of-mouth and online reviews are very important in this industry as many potential customers use others’ first-hand experience as a fundamental decision making resource. Whether the fault lies with a facilitator, a clinic, or even an individual doctor; it is a poor reflection on the industry as a whole. In the early stages of any industry it is important to ensure a lasting and positive impression through quality care and attention to detail. This does not mean paying for accreditation’s and certificates to lure in customers but actually offering a high level of transparency and care throughout the process. There are many of these programs going around that are merely aimed at drawing in customers through easily obtained and relatively meaningless accreditation’s, this dilutes the importance of the meaningful benchmarks which a medical tourism clinic, facilitator, or doctor can be measured by.

There are now initiatives to standardize care such as The EU Directive which established a framework within which cross border healthcare operates and set the rules regarding how patients access care and what kind of treatment they are entitled to outside of their own country. Directives such as this help to set a standard for medical tourism, but in this case it’s only applicable to EU member states.