Impact of Medical Tourism on Healthcare
Medical tourism or global healthcare is when a patient travels to another destination, domestic or abroad, for medical or health and wellness services. Often, these services include dental treatment, knee surgery, health check-up or even a trip to a wellness spa. The term medical tourism may sound unusual and luxurious to some, but in fact, it is a rapidly growing industry spurred on by an increasingly empowered patient base searching for quality, affordability, availability, and accessibility in healthcare.
Medical Tourists are driven by a number of forces outside typical medical referral systems to seek modern healthcare at affordable prices in countries at different levels of development. Medical tourism is different from the traditional form of international medical care where patients generally travel from less developed nations to major medical centers in highly developed countries for advanced medical treatment.
According to statistics, the global medical tourism market was valued at USD 15.43 billion in 2017 and is expected to register a CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period of 2018–2023. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for the largest share of around 40% of the global market, whereas, North America was estimated to register the fastest CAGR over the forecast period.
Medical tourism is driven by market trends like medical, economic, social, and political forces. Low cost is the primary reason that patients from developed nations seek medical care in less developed countries. Generally, patients in the medical tourism model would prefer to have their medical treatment in the comfort of their own hometown. However, these patients are forced to choose between the comfort of their own home versus their financial security.
These patients are generally divided into two categories:
- Working class or minimum wage workers that require an elective surgery but have inadequate health benefits or no health benefits at all.
- Patients who require surgeries but aren’t covered by insurance providers like dental reconstruction, cosmetic surgeries, and other such surgeries.
Thus, medical tourists are generally patients who can’t afford decent treatment in their own county but can afford good treatment in less developed countries.
Innovation in Healthcare Solutions
Innovation, for the most part, stems from need. When it comes to the healthcare industry, there is a great demand for innovation! One such innovation is medical tourism and it brings a lot to the table like
- Enhancements in Healthcare Solution
Hospitals and clinics in any country provide services to local inhabitants, but these treatments and therapies remain stagnant for years together with minimal efforts to attempt at amendment or modernization. However, the advent of medical tourists force the hospitals to upgrade their infrastructure and services, given the high standards that they are used to back home. Such is the effect of medical tourism on a nation’s medical industry.
- International Standards in Healthcare Solutions
Apart from reputed physicians, a potential medical tourist looks at various other aspects of the establishment like accreditations from authorized bodies, quality of healthcare and accountability standards. These factors help aid and improve the international standards to meet international patient requirements and expectations.
- The emergence of supporting Healthcare Infrastructure
Globalization of medicine has brought the corollary of several other allied healthcare sectors like travel, health insurance, a vast selection of tourism getaways and a number of options for hospitable accommodation in the country that one chooses to get treated in.
The emergence of global healthcare is incomplete without these associated factors that contribute in equal measure to its accomplishments. Medical Tourism doesn’t only provide benefits to international patients, it extends a wide spectrum of benefits to many industries such as the healthcare industry, travel & tourism, commercial sector, government relationships, international accreditation sector, amongst others. It is providing a lot of patients worldwide with affordable and trusted treatment and care.
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