The Risks and Benefits of Medical Tourism
The paper covers medical tourism is worth the risk. Most patients are involved in medical tourism for three major reasons that include; high quality of healthcare, access, affordability and better availability. The paper answers the question in a form of annotated bibliography from various journal sources. Medical tourism is a manifestation for globalization. High medical costs, lack of new therapies and long waiting periods during treatment are some of the reasons that encourage medical tourism. Countries such as Canada and Western Europe seek medication from Latin America and Asia. The destination countries of medical tourism have positive developmental and economic impacts. The research seeks to describe the risk associated with medical tourism in the form of annotated bibliography.
Introduction
Medical tourism refers to situations where people travel from one's nation to another to seek surgical and medical care. Individuals practice medical tourism with intentions of better care, affordability and in search of high quality care (Connell 1). The patients receive better or equal treatment as those offered in their own country.
Benefits of Medical Tourism
Medical tourism is associated with many benefits such as; convenient transfer of medical information, international relationships with medical providers and one-stop medical tourism shopping (De Arellano et al, 14). Patients that engage in medical tourism have the advantage of access to information, various hospitals and procedures. The facilitator of medical tourism in the visiting country is responsible for taking care of the patient's transportation and logistics such as lodging and flights. However, there are certain risks involved in medical tourism.
Risks of Medical Tourism
Travel after surgery is one of the risks associated with medical tourism. After a surgery is done to patients, travelling for long distances may cause certain types of risks such as; pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis. Patients who travel long distances after a surgery are likely to have clots deep in their veins. Doctors recommend that patients should exercise their legs while sitting and walking around each 2 to 3 hours after surgical procedures have been conducted (De Arellano et al 12).
Patients also risk minimum and less effective legal recourse just in case something goes wrong during surgery. Different countries have varying legal recourse procedures and if a complication occurred for example due to doctor's negligence, filing a case in court would be hard. In addition, most international hospitals outline that medical tourism patients that may want a legal recourse should sign waivers stating that surgery lawsuits should be filed in the countries where the surgery is conducted. Moreover, patients risk inappropriate aftercare healthcare once they return home. In most instances, doctors are required to make follow up on the customers in order to monitor the progress. However, in medical tourism, it becomes difficult for physicians and nurses to monitor patient's progress and follow up. Varying standards in various countries also poses a risk to patients in medical tourism. Each country has its own regulation, certification and licensing protocols which differ from those in the United States. Therefore, the patient is left with the burden of conducting research to determine hospitals that are accredited or doctors that are licensed (Horowitz et al 16). Therefore, patients may sometimes face the risk of being treated by doctors that are not licensed or hospitals without licenses. The paper involves an annotated bibliography that describes its worth taking the risk involved in medical tourism. The paper answers the question that the benefits associated with medical tourism are worth taking a risk for them. Several citations from journals have been used to describe why it is important to take a risk in medical tourism.
Works Cited
Laura Hopkinsa , Ronald Labonte´ b,*, Vivien Runnelsb , and Corinne Packerb ; Medical tourism today: What is the state of existing knowledge?
The article describes the existing knowledge in medical tourism today. The article identifies and compares the benefits and risks associated in medical tourism. The article further defines medical tourism as promoting healthcare across country borders that is motivated by short waiting times, unavailability of services in one’s country and lower costs. The article further stipulates that the countries of destination get a positive impact through medical developments and economical boosts brought by the visiting clients. Wealthier patients from the North are the ones that tend to visit South regularly for treatment.
The increase in medical tourism is facilitated by the growth in internet based brokers that connect health facilities to the patients. According to Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, almost 350,000 patients from developing countries travel to developed nations seeking better medication. In developing nations, the cost of labor is cheap, availability of inexpensive drugs and absence of insurance malpractices enhance developed nations to bring new procedures at 10% lower as it is in the United States.
The destination country benefits from inward foreign currency. As a result, the country gets increased foreign currency in other sectors such as; infrastructure industries, health and tourism which in turn improves the general economy of the country and results to development of health-care systems to the general population. Therefore, according to the article, taking medical tourism risk is worth as benefits are more compared to the costs. Medical tourism is also beneficial since it assists to slow down the migration of medical experts to developed nations. For example, The Apollo group in India attracts many expatriate medical experts to go back to the country by offering better salaries, good working conditions and at the same time being provided with an opportunity to practice advanced medical care.
Developed countries with smaller populations are able to develop, subsidize and sustain technology and medical care while at the same time maintaining medical specialists at a low domestic demand. The most common medical tourism destinations in the world include; Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia and India. The countries continue to enjoy increased growth in the health sector and other areas of the economy. The main beneficiaries are healthcare facilities that provide the services and the medical tourists. However, in most developing countries, there are no proper tax measures put in place to ensure that money acquired as a result of medical tourism gets back to the health care facilities.The article explains the benefits the destination country achieves as a result of medical tourism.
Goldbach, Alyssa R., and West,Daniel J.,,Jr. "Medical Tourism: A New Venue of Healthcare." Journal of Global Business Issues, vol. 4, no. 2, 2010, pp. 43-53. ProQuest Central, http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.csn.edu/docview/815282482?accountid=27953.
The journal describes medical tourism as the immigration of individuals to United States while at the same time outsourcing them to international places. The article outlines the issue of health insurance coverage and its impact on global and domestic markets. In addition, the article seeks to answer the question about international health care standards in relation to access, cost parameters and quality. Moreover, the article explains why medical tourism is worth taking the risk while at the same time observing legal and ethical issues.
Medical tourism provides affordable healthcare in many destinations at various countries in a timely manner. The increase in medical tourism has caused a rise in economic growth for developed countries while at the same creating markets for advertising of access to healthcare. However, though medical tourism has brought many benefits to the host countries, there is a lot of malpractices that happen and many ethical concerns raised. Approximately 417000 patients travelled to the United States for medication in the year 2007. Medical tourism has increased the growth of certain hospitals in the United States such as; The Cleveland, Harvard Medical Centre and John Hopkins Hospital. The outbound market in medical tourism was estimated to grow from 60 million dollars to 100 billion dollars between the periods 2006 and 2010. Medical tourism incorporates many services venues and procedures at a lower cost and with the attention of certified physicians. Increased economic growth in developing countries is the reason for rise in medical tourism.
Medical tourism is helpful in complex surgeries that require complex interventions. Some medical complications and surgeries require the patients to stay longer in the United States and thus benefiting the country economically. Medical tourism at the same time provides financial discounts to patients while at the same time providing vacation to them. Some patients engage in medical tourism to with reasons to relax at luxurious beachfront resort.
Carrera, Percivil M., and John F. P. Bridges. "Globalization and Healthcare: Understanding Health and Medical Tourism." Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics " Outcomes Research, vol. 6, no. 4, 2006, pp. 447-54. ProQuest Central, http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.csn.edu/docview/920096035? accountid=27953, doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.library.csn.edu/10.1586/14737167.6.4.447.
The journal explains that medical tourism is worth the risk. The article describes that less barriers in to travel and long waiting lists have made medical tourism more popular. According to the article, medical tourism is defined as organized travel outside a patient’s environment for, restoration and maintenance of an individual’s wellbeing. Health tourism has become an industry that has more than 617 million people with a growth rate of around 3.9% and worth $ 513 billion annually. Medical tourism has also benefited from institutional endorsement. For example, in 2002, the National Health Service in UK started to offer qualified patients with cardiac procedures and orthopedic in the European Economic Area.
Moreover, the article outlines the positive impact of medical and health tourism by providing quality health care from certified experts. Medical tourism has significantly increased due to quality health insurance covers.
Hall, C. M. "Health and Medical Tourism: A Kill Or Cure for Global Public Health?" Tourism Review of AIEST - International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism, vol. 66, no. 1, 2011, pp. 4-15. ProQuest Central, http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.csn.edu/docview/1012261015?accountid=27953, doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.library.csn.edu/10.1108/16605371111127198.
The article focuses on special aspect of tourism review and academic literature on medical tourism from an international perspective. The article supports medical tourism and further describes the benefits associated are worth taking a risk for. Health and medical tourism is defined as providing healthcare centers and the available resources in the country particularly in climate and water with mineral contents. Most countries such as Switzerland attract medical tourists’ trough enhancing its health care facilities and services.
Providing mineral waters acts as a vital component of in promoting health and medical tourism. In addition, Spas are important in healing certain diseases such as; back pain syndrome, arthritis, trauma, sterility, and obesity. Moreover, apart from the patients, there are guests who come seeking Spa services with an intention of relaxation. The various types of Spas available include; club, day, destination, medical, cruise ship, mineral and resort spa. Many institutions and government view medical tourism as a means of economic development. The article supports medical tourism through the argument that it provides quality health care to patients.
Johnston et al. International Journal for Equity in Health 2010, What is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries? 9:24 http://www.equityhealthj.com/content/9/1/24
The journal describes medical tourism as a patient voluntarily leaving his country for the purposes of accessing non-emergency health care services from nations abroad. The article outline that patients are motivated to engage in medical tourism by factors such as; lack of the services in their domestic countries, high costs and lengthy waiting periods. The article supports medical tourism since it has a high benefit to cost analysis.
The journal describes the importance of medical tourism with much more benefits as compared to the costs and risks involved. Conclusively, medical tourism should be encouraged as it brings economic growth to the destination country and also promotes quality healthcare to the visiting patients and therefore, it’s worth the risk.
Works Cited
Connell, John. "Medical tourism: Sea, sun, sand and… surgery." Tourism management 27.6 (2006): 1093-1100.
De Arellano, Annette B. Ramirez. "Patients without borders: the emergence of medical tourism." International Journal of Health Services 37.1 (2007): 193-198.
Horowitz, Michael D., Jeffrey A. Rosensweig, and Christopher A. Jones. "Medical tourism: globalization of the healthcare marketplace." Medscape General Medicine 9.4 (2007): 33.
