HEALTH TOURISM AND AN EXAMPLE OF PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SOLUTION

Year 2018, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 82 - 86, 12.09.2018

Haluk Özsarı , Mehmet Seker

https://doi.org/10.31201/ijhmt.435992

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Turkey has been one of the popular destinations in world in terms of tourism. Its geographical position, climate and natural resources made it a plausible destination for tourism for several decades. Turkish health care sector attracts international patients both to private and public health facilities. Between 2008 and 2014, roughly 75 % of the patients preferred private hospitals in Turkey. After 2014, there is a decline in total number of international patients in the following years and the percentages of the private institutions starts to decline as well. As of today, Turkey has 46 JCI (Joint Commission International) accredited hospitals and healthcare facilities, making it one of the leading countries in medical tourism. US citizens, by receiving treatment in Turkey can save up to 65 % of their medical costs. Turkish Government has declared in its 10^thDevelopment Plan that Turkey targets to have USD 20 billion income from health tourism by 2023, of which USD 5,6 billion will generated by only medical tourism.

One of the private healthcare groups in Turkey, Acibadem Health Group, has implemented an international patient oriented application which helps them to get the best care in Turkey, which is called “Acibadem Health Point”, which helps international patients in every possible step of international healthcare tourism. Acibadem Health Group has regional representative offices in more than 30 countries to provide patients with information about local hospitals, doctors etc., and organizes their visit to their healthcare facilities. They host almost 30thousand patients, annually from 5 continents and 47 different countries in 90 different branches and their International Patient Center staffed by a team of 150, providing comprehensive 360 degrees of healthcare services, from scheduling patients treatment at Acibadembefore arrivalto assisting their travel back home. Sustainable quality approach is indispensable concept in health tourism. We also must rapidly increase the number of best practices in our country such as “health point”. As the level of international healthcare standard increases, the level of satisfaction of foreign patients and user loyalty will also increase. We should never forget that as a health manager. 

Keywords

health point

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