On the Ethics of Medical Tourism: An Examination of Patients’ Perspectives

Dear Editor-in-Chief

Medical tourism is often referred to as the act of leaving one’s country to go to a country other than the home country for specific and enhanced medical care and recuperation (1). It represents the less costly private medical care for patients, mostly from developed countries that need serious surgical operations (2). Besides, many patients from less developed countries also visiting various European countries and the United States for better healthcare for some specific diagnostics and treatments which are not available in their own countries (3). Today, medical tourism is truly a global phenomenon. It is being promoted by many countries around the world; owing to the fact that the idea provides these individuals with many benefits. As for the health travelers, there are numerous options for medical vacation spots which add to their advantages and reduced healthcare costs (4). Consequently, medical tourism is not only practical but also economical for those who look to having a satisfying vacation whilst attending to their healthcare needs at the same time. For organizations and administration, medical vacation can be considered as a profitable industry to raise profit and contribute to the gross domestic product.

How Patient Experience Can Inform Policy Making and Legislation?

Medical tourism is different from other services as it is about confidence and assurance in the treatment and standard of care received. The major problem in medical tourism is that there is no legal constitution for medical tourists in the providing country that might help them when things go wrong (5). Due to lack of proper government regulations as well as the insurance policies, the medical tourists’ life is at risk while they visit to a foreign country for obtaining healthcare. In most cases, patients do not have precise ideas about the technical matter for the treatment. Many patients also cannot differentiate the performance in caring and curing provided by the medical service providers (6). For this reason, sometimes it becomes a potential problem for data collection as they are the main source of judging the service quality of the industry.

Carman et al. has proposed a framework for patient’s engagement in the decision making process (7). According to them, patients need the relevant information regarding the clinical procedure to exercise their right to decide whether to undergo the treatment in abroad. This ultimately increases the risks for the medical tourists those are planning for a surgery abroad as they are not aware of the legal consequences in case something goes wrong. Therefore, patients must understand the legal redress available to them before their travel for medical care abroad (8).

The popularity of medical tourism is increasing worldwide as the benefits are numerous. Competition in the global medical tourism market is greater than ever as many countries are promoting medical tourism. As nations around the world positively promote medical travel and leisure, heavy investment goes into upgrading the healthcare system of these countries. For this, the quality of healthcare in that country can be enhanced and the residents will benefit. Nevertheless, this investment and the particular demand inspired by the foreign patients poses particular risk of increased healthcare price and overlooked need of the neighborhood residents that indicates negative impact to the healthcare system of the actual vacation spot countries (9).

In conclusion, medical tourism is among the most rapidly developing industries that has undergone a rapid expansion. This has led the hospitality industries to great improvements in competition and with a large number of clients. There is certainly a wide base of international and home customers and the medical tourism industry need to ensure quality services. Besides, due to the ever-increasing media coverage on the satisfaction of the patients treated outside U.S. in the last few years have attracted a large number of the U.S. patients to seek treatments abroad. This trend indicates that the quality and services provided by the hospitals across the globe has been equalized that creates further demand to investigate on how to engage patients in the decision making process to come up with the most appropriate policy that will benefit both the patients and the providers. As healthcare is an industry that is patient centered, thus, engaging patients in the decision making process will help the policy makers to understand the patients’ wants and requirements more clearly. Likewise, patients should have the rights to accept or to decline any healthcare services. Hence, it is of vital importance for patients to have adequate knowledge on the various aspects while going for medical tourism abroad.