Establishing an international patient services department in a hospital is difficult work and requires thoughtful planning and execution about why, what, who, and how.
Health tourism, medical tourism, medical travelers
The immediate answer to the question, “Why establish an international patient service?” is to serve foreign patients more effectively and efficiently. Medical travelers and health tourists have different needs than local consumers/patients. These needs include transportation, lodging, Visa requirements, accompanying guests, language and cultural differences, food, public health risks, international post-treatment follow-up and a host of other challenges.
A distinction has to be made between those who travel expressly for the purpose of being treated abroad versus travelers who become injured or ill while traveling. These “accidental medical travelers” might be a distraction, or they might represent an appealing incremental source of income for your hospital or clinic. These accidental medical tourists are not, however, health tourists or medical travelers and are not a sustainable stream of manageable referrals.
Why develop an international patient department at your hospital?
If your hospital has made the decision to attract foreign consumers, the best reasons to establish an international patient department are:
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Brand enhancement
International patient programs in hospitals can more effectively and efficiently serve foreign consumers. Because of their highly specialized needs and the distinct international patient journey map, medical tourists require specialized and labor-intensive services. Serving foreign patients takes more time and resources than local patients, and therefore the direct and indirect costs of serving them is higher than local or domestic patients.
From a strictly business point of view, managing these specialized services and measuring their costs is strategically important. Managing foreign patients differently is strategic because of the risk that they represent to the hospital or clinic’s brand. Once a hospital’s brand is damaged within an important source marketplace, it’s very difficult and expensive to restore or recover the lost reputation. It’s far better to have a focused, dedicated team assuring that foreign patients experience positive and when errors occur (not “if”) that they are quickly addressed. A well-organized and appropriately developed international patient department in a hospital is more effective, efficient and – most importantly – can enhance or improve the hospital’s brand both domestically and abroad.
In a national survey of US hospitals with international patient departments, Stackpole & Associates learned that brand development was the most important reason to develop international patient programs.
Best in Class International Patient Departments & Programs
Successful international patient departments and programs require the same thoughtful planning as other departments within a hospital or health system. In our experience, there is a direct correlation between how carefully the international patient program is developed and its success. These factors include, but are not limited to:
- Rationale – Why does the program or service exist as a distinct department?
- Goals and Objectives – How will the international patient department contribute to the vision, mission and values of the hospital or health system, and how will these be measured?
- Structure – Where will the department fit in the organizational chart; to whom will it report; how will the committee managing the service be structured, and from how many other services will the group bee staffed?
- Reporting – What metrics will be tracked on a regular or intermittent basis; what reports will be required and to whom will they be distributed?
- Staff – Who will handle the day-to-day, patient facing tasks of the international program; who will interface with other departments and services within the hospital, such as finance, human resources, legal, and the various clinical services? The day-to-day patient and family management roles are very similar to case management, while the international patient departments’ interactions with other departments and services can become highly political.
- Technology – Which software systems and technologies will be used to manage pre-, intra-and post-patient treatment; how will the CRM system interface with other systems within the hospital or health system; is the telehealth/telemedicine technology up to the challenge of global patients?
- Conflict resolution – How will the inevitable conflicts about clinical and nonclinical priorities, payments, and patient preferences be adjudicated?
The development of an effective international patient department and program depends upon all of these structural factors and more. In addition, there is a wide array of procedures and processes that need to be developed. For example, the international patient service needs to recruit and train staff, develop tailored packages for foreign consumers, help adapt physical facilities with international patients in mind, ensure coordination of clinical services and schedules, interface with various transportation nodes, assure suitable language proficiency and cultural awareness.
And of course, the international patient service is integrally involved in building awareness of, and preference for your hospital as a destination for the targeted foreign patients, as well as the medical institutions and insurance organizations that act as intermediaries on behalf of the patients. These relationship development and marketing roles should be developed after the building blocks of the international patient services department are in place. Attempting to attract foreign patients before the systems and infrastructure are in place is like shaking the tree before you can pick up the fruit. It can be done, but it’s neither efficient nor effective.
The capability or capacity of a hospital or health system to successfully develop an international patient department is contingent on realistic commitments and perseverance in the face of inevitable difficulties and setbacks. For these reasons, the international patient service must be built on the solid foundation of the vision, mission and values of the hospital or health system which it serves.
Contact Stackpole & Associates if you would like to establish an international patient service in your hospital, or to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your existing international patient department.
