Discussion 2: Medical Tourism Medical tourism is becoming increasingly popular, and it is important...

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Discussion 2: Medical Tourism

Medical tourism is becoming increasingly popular, and it is important to understand why consumers might seek medical care outside of their home countries. Consider Maria, a 68-year-old female who lives in the United States. Her doctor has recommended a hip replacement, but because it is not life-threatening she is put on a wait list for surgery. Medical tourism is an alternative for Maria, but she has never even considered the possibility of traveling to another country to seek medical care. How might you market medical tourism to patients like Maria? For this Discussion, you examine benefits and barriers to medical tourism and recommend marketing strategies for consumers.

To prepare:

Identify benefits of and barriers to medical tourism. Reflect on reasons consumers may or may not seek medical care outside of their home country.
Consider marketing strategies to help consumers overcome potential barriers.

Note:For this Discussion, you are required to complete your initial post before you will be able to view and respond to your colleagues’ postings. Begin by selecting the “Post to Discussion” link and then select “Create Thread” to complete your initial post. Remember, once you click submit, you cannot delete or edit your own posts, and cannot post anonymously. Please check your post carefully before clickingSubmit!

By Day 3

Posta cohesive response to the following:

Analyze benefits of and barriers to medical tourism. Then, recommend marketing strategies to help consumers overcome potential barriers and seek medical care outside of their home countries. Defend or argue your recommendations. Support your response by identifying and explaining key points and/or examples presented in the Learning Resources.

Soumi · Accepted Answer

Running Head: MEDICAL TOURISM		1
MEDICAL TOURISM 		2
HEALTHCARE
DISCUSSION 2: MEDICAL TOURISM
Table of Contents
Benefits of Medical Tourism	3
Barriers to Medical Tourism	3
Reflecting on Reasons for Consumers wanting, or not, to seek Medical Tourism	3
Recommending Strategies for overcoming Potential Barriers to Medical Tourism	3
References	4
Benefits of Medical Tourism
Medical tourism proves to be a useful option for those patients, who are unable to get a desired, high quality or safe standard of care services in their home country. As mentioned by Hanefeld, Smith and Noree (2016), major benefits of medical tourism are not only that it helps to uplift the national economy of the country, where people are coming to seek care services, but also that it facilitates accessibility of care services or medical facilities for a large number of service seekers.
Barriers to Medical Tourism
On the other hand, it has the disadvantage of not being affordable for many, especially those, who belong to economically under-developed countries or geographically unfavorable locations. As supported by Skountridaki (2017), lack of knowledge of people, in terms of the suitable countries providing their required healthcare service also might cause them considerably wasted expenditure.
Reflecting on Reasons for Consumers wanting, or not, to seek Medical Tourism
If I were to consider availing medical care outside my home country, then I could have agreed to seek it because according to me, if travelling to some other country and seeking care facilities from there could improve my health or living conditions, then I would definitely try to opt for it. I might have applied for a loan, sought doctor’s advice and would have researched for the most appropriate country for my acquired health issue before opting for medical tourism.
Recommending Strategies for overcoming Potential Barriers to Medical Tourism
In order to convince patients like Maria, success stories of medical tourism could be related to her, especially those pertaining to safe hip replacement surgery. As suggested by Romao, Machino and Nijkamp (2017), transparency should be maintained in terms of the expenses, legal regulations and potential barriers. Nevertheless, no patient should be forced to make decisions in favor of or against it.
References
Hanefeld, J., Smith, R., & Noree, T. (2016). Medical tourism. In World Scientific Handbook of Global Health Economics and Public Policy: Volume 3: Health System Characteristics and Performance, 333-350
Romao, J., Machino, K., & Nijkamp, P. (2017). Assessment of wellness tourism development in Hokkaido: a multicriteria and strategic choice analysis. Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, 1(1), 265-290.
Skountridaki, L. (2017). Barriers to business relations between medical tourism facilitators and medical professionals. Tourism Management, 59, 254-266.

Discussion 2: Medical Tourism Medical tourism is becoming increasingly popular, and it is important to understand why consumers might seek medical care outside of their home countries. Consider Maria,...

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