Evaluation Index System of Surgical Tourism Service Organizations in China: An Empirical Research

Background: Healthcare tourism is an emerging economy with the most potential in China's health industry before the COVID-19 pandemic. Surgical medical health tourism accounts for a large part of medical tourism services in China, which has higher requirements for quality and safety. By contrast, measurement tools and theoretical research are insufficient in China. The aim of this study was to develop a set of reliable and feasible indicators by augmenting the original Donabedian’s quality model to evaluate surgical tourism services’ quality.Methods: Literature review and focus group interview were used to generate indicators for surgical tourism services’ quality. The basic framework of the evaluation system was based on the structure-process-outcome Donabedian model. The screening and weight setting were conducted through analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and a two-round Delphi consultation with 13 panelists. Validity and reliability of experts were tested by the experts' positive coefficient, authority coefficient, and coordination coefficient. Reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by a pretest distributed within an international medical department of a public hospital in China.Results: Based on the Donabedian’s quality theory, the novel evaluation system of surgical tourism service institutions with 3 dimensions, 9 first-level items and 39 second-level items was constructed. The three dimensions consist of structure (0.315), process (0.287), and outcome (0.398), with each dimension set several indicators and each indicator given a weight. Of the two rounds of Delphi consultation, the response rates were 86.67% and 100%. The coordination coefficient of expert opinions in the two rounds of consultation were 0.49 and 0.65 (p<0.05). For the empirical study, the self-evaluation score of a public hospital was 86, which could obtain a rating of two stars.Conclusions: The established evaluation system identified three different dimensions of surgical tourism services’ quality which fit for practical healthcare improvement in safety and quality. It can reflect the access criterion of surgical tourism institutions, provide references on better choices of surgical services for tourists, and can be applied by healthcare managers and policy makers to allocate resources more efficiently and promote more surgical tourism services to international standards.

The role and importance of perceived risk in medical tourism. Applying the theory of planned behaviour

The main aim of the study was to investigate the role and importance of perceived risk in medical tourism (MT). The research demonstrates that the country of origin and an assessment of the respondents’ own health condition significantly moderates the impact of their attitudes on behavioral intention. The research shows a strong correlation between the risk perceived by the respondents and their attitudes towards MT services. This relationship is significantly moderated by risk awareness, aversion to risk and gender. Additionally, an important factor in the model is the level of satisfaction with medical services in their own country. The survey using a fully structured questionnaire was conducted among young consumers from Jordan, Poland and Turkey. To verify the hypotheses, a multiple regression model with interactions was used.

Medical Tourism Patient Mortality

Medical tourism is a process in which a consumer travels from one's place of residence and receives medical treatment, thus becoming a patient. Patients Beyond Borders (PBB) forecasts some 1.9 million Americans will travel outside the United States for medical care in 2019. This chapter explores media representations of patient mortality associated with medical tourism within the global news media occurring between 2009-2019. A qualitative content analysis of 50 patient mortality cases found that (1) a majority of media representations of medical tourism patient death are of middle-class, minority females between 25-55 years of age who seek cosmetic surgery internationally; (2) sudden death, grief, and bereavement counseling is noticeably absent from medical tourism providers (MTPs); and (3) risk information from authority figures within the media reports is often vague and abstract. A detailed list of health communication recommendations and considerations for future medical tourists and their social support systems are provided.

Leveraging Blockchain in Medical Tourism Value Chain

There are significant challenges facing the medical tourism industry: privacy and transparency concerns, lack of access to centralized medical records, fraudulent practices, opportunistic behavior of intermediaries, foreign currency risks, and contractual/legal issues. While blockchain technology has immense potential to address the industry’s inherent challenges and inefficiencies, the current understanding of blockchain application in medical tourism is fragmented. Through a pragmatic review of the literature, this study explores the blockchain applications and benefits for medical tourists across the stages of the medical tourism value chain, and in the process, proposes a meaningful and managerially relevant blockchain framework for medical tourism. The findings and the proposed novel framework to guide policy interventions and support mechanisms to take advantage of the full opportunities of blockchain in medical tourism.

Development of Cave Tourism in the Domica Area in Slovakia

The purpose of the study. The main goal of the study is to determine the most effective solutions for the development of cave tourism and medical tourism, as well as the standard of living and infrastructure of the region, based on the used literature and the questionnaire research on tourism development. Applied methods. The study starts with information about the natural and geological heritage found in the Domica region in Slovakia. It continues with the discovery, construction and characterization of the most significant caves from a tourist and economic point of view. Following the professional characterization, the questionnaire research developed and evaluated in the last stage of the study analyzes the possibility of the development of cave tourism and health tourism in the immediate vicinity of the Domica Cave based on the opinions, remarks and experiences of the service providers in the area. Outcomes. Caves are called natural underground cavities that have formed as a result of geomorphological and geophysical processes under different natural conditions. The caves in the karst are dissolved or are created by the weathering of the bedrock, while after the leakage of gases, caves form as cavities in the volcanic rocks. Few countries have as many different underground karst formations as Slovakia, with 7,014 known caves, of which only 18 can be visited. Discovering these underground wonders is a new challenge for hikers. Interest in caves peaked in the 20th century, when the desire to return to nature and improve the health of patients with respiratory diseases (speleotherapy) became the leading motivation. Today, caves are most often used for recreation. Nevertheless, within geotourism a popular way to explore caves is caving and the associated extreme or less extreme sports that only came to the fore in the 21st century. The results of the research of this study are sufficient evidence that the region is suitable for the development of cave tourism and medical tourism, for which the most obvious solution is to create an international geopark.

FACTORS AFFECTING THE SATISFACTION OF BANGLADESHI MEDICAL TOURISTS

Medical tourism is a promising industry which is growing day by day. Researching on medical tourism is getting popularity in tourism literature. The aim of this study is to analyze the factors that have effects on medical tourist satisfaction towards medical tourism and also measure the satisfaction level. Thus, non-probability sampling method, especially convenience and snowball sampling technique were used to collect data from the respondents. Statistical analysis like factor analysis, descriptive analysis, and ordinal logistic regression analysis has been used to analyze the data collected through questionnaire. The statistical outcome indicates that doctors’ and nurses’ service quality, treatment facilities, cost of medical care, environment of hospital, tourism facilities, availability of doctors and staffs were found to have an impact on the patients’ satisfaction ratings. Patient demographic characteristics such as sex of the patients, age, and income had insignificant associations with satisfaction.