Medical Tourism Private Hospitals: Focus India by Billie Brotman - Article Example

A Critical Review of “Medical Tourism Private Hospitals: Focus India” Article by Billie Brotman Submitted to (INSTRUCTOR’S NAME) (INSTITUTION NAME) (ADDRESS) November 23, 2010. By (STUDENT NAME) (INSTITUTION NAME) INTRODUCTION Medical tourism (also known as health tourism or medical travel) is the practice of travelling across the global borders to obtain health care. The main purpose of this essay is to review an article on medical tourism. Therefore, this essay will review an article that was written in 2010 by Billie Ann Brotman. The article “Medical Tourism Private Hospitals: Focus India”. The topic of the article is important because it describes the competitive advantage that India has over Western countries in relation to medical tourism. Secondly, the article reviews some of the main factors that have promoted the increasing demand for the major private hospitals in India. The article is a case study on some of the private hospitals in India such as Fortis and Apollo Hospitals. This assures that the information on this article is original hence reliable. SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF THE ARTICLE The article by Brotman examines various demand factors for stylish medical treatments that are offered by the private hospitals that operate in India. In his article, Brothman describes three types of medical tourism: intra-bound, inbound and outbound. The author believes that the positive growth and profitability trend by the private hospitals in India is attributed to the escalating income levels within India. In this articles’ context, the outbound medical tourism is when a patient goes out from India to be treated in the United States of America. An inbound medical tourist in this context is the one who travels from the foreign countries such as the United States of America to be treated in India. An intra-bound type of medical tourism is attributed by patients travelling to different geographic areas for treatment, but they remain in their home country (Brotman, 2010). The author believes that the increased profitability within the private hospitals in India is as a result of local intra-bound and inbound demand. There are higher local incomes that are as a result of escalating demand for special treatment mainly provided by the private hospitals chains. As the local incomes increase the medical care demand increases acting as a motivation for increased financial returns and facility investment. This implies that a ten percent increase in income should produce a higher percentage increase in the demand for specialized health care. The main countries that are attributed to this increase in India’s profitability are patients from Canada, United Kingdom and United States of America. This is due to high quality standards offered by the private hospitals in India. The study in the article particularly discusses Fortis and Apollo hospitals strategic management strategies and health care chains. Their chains were chosen to branch out their offerings within India. According to the author of the article, these hospitals have built professional health care networks with both primary and secondary care facilities feeding tertiary facilities. This entire network strategy encourages the promotion of Intra-bound medical tourism (Brotman, 2010). The growth of medical tourism sector caters for local population with a direct emphasis on regional medical centers that offers specialized care. Brotman states that advertisements through the internet have promoted the inbound medical tourism sector in India. According to the author, India has recently been giving out medical visas which have promoted the ease of traveling to India for the sole purpose Medical treatment. The M-Visa allows the patients to remain in India for one year. It is renewable in the subsequent year and it allows numerous entries In India for follow up services. The author states that the transparent pricing strategy has encouraged the demand for India’s medical services. The prices for medical services In India are very low as compared to United States of America and the United Kingdom. The pricing package includes consultation fees, medical charges, postoperative consultancy and hospital charges where within a month the patient will be arriving home. For instance, the coronary artery bypass is £3,700to £3,950. This includes charges for a ten day admission at the private hospital. CRITICAL ANALYSES AND EVALUATION OF THE CONTENTS OF THE ARTICLE The author’s contentions are valid and can be termed as professional in relation to the field of medical tourism. To start with there are three types of medical tourism namely inbound, intra-bound and outbound. In the case of India and most Asian medical tourism destinations such as Singapore and Thailand the outbound medical tourism does not apply. This can be attributed to the fact that there are cheap and quality medical services within the country. This makes the domestic patients to take advantage of the readily available medical services within their country. India has been treating both domestic and foreign patients equitably. There is no discrimination between foreign and domestic patients. In the article, Brothman looked at the main factors that are promoting the medical tourism sector in India. First he has stated that the hospitals in India are mainly private. This means that the private sector has taken health care services to be among the best business ventures to undertake in India. The domination of the private sector into the business has promoted to the quality of services being offered to the international patients. As according to Brotman (2010), the main private hospitals in India include Fortis Hospital, Apollo Hospitals and Kovai Medical centers, Wockhardt hospitals among others. In addition, according to my further research, the private hospitals in India have embraced the modern medical technology. This is another factor that promotes the development of the medical tourism sector in India and other Asian medical tourism destinations. Brotman (2010) stated that the sector is also attracting domestic customers. This means that the sector does not only rely on foreign patients but also the domestic patients. This is unlike other tourism destinations in the developing countries who promote tourism for overseas markets only. Promoting domestic tourism is a factor that promotes the entire tourism industry. Moreover, the author attributed the development of the tourism sector in India as a result of better advertisement strategies. The private hospitals in India have embarked on internet advertisement. They have their own websites which they use to sell their medical services to both overseas and domestic markets. In addition, the pricing strategy for India’s service puts other destinations on the edge. The author gives an example of a coronary bypass which cost is between £3,700 and £3,950. In a further research, for the purpose of this paper, I compared India to other medical tourism destinations. From the statistics released by AMA, a Knee surgery would cost $8500 in India, $10000 in Thailand, $13000 in Singapore and $40000 in the United States. A heart Valve replacement surgery would cost $8000 in India, $10000 in Thailand, $12500 in Singapore, $90000 in Britain and $200000 in the United States. Cosmetic Surgery would cost $2000 in India, $3500 in Thailand, $10000 in UK and $20000 in the United States. For example, in April 2003 Madras Medical Mission in India successfully performed a complex heart surgery on an old patient from America (87 year old). The reported cost of the operation amounted to $8000 including the monthly stay in the hospital and airfare. According to that patient, such an operation had cost him $40,000 in America. This implies that India is the most cost effective medical tourism destination in the world by reducing the patients’ medical expenditure by 75%. The low price does not compromise the quality of the services that are being offered by the hospitals in India. This is in relation to the fact that the hospitals have adopted the modern medical technology and have qualified medical staff. However, the author of the article failed to discuss the negative side of the medical tourism sector in India. This was a case study article and due to this fact the author could have mentioned some of the challenges that India is facing in the field of Medical tourism. Failure to feature the challenges in the article implies the author’s biasness. The author could have demonstrated how the problems of infrastructure have impaired the medical tourism sector. India is characterized with overcrowded hospitals, open sewers, poor roads and underdeveloped cities. This gives a competitive advantage to other destinations which are slightly expensive but have better infrastructure such as Thailand and Singapore. CONCLUSION The article that has been featured in this review was written in the Journal of health care Finance in 2010. The main aim of the author was to report on the financial progress of private hospitals that promote medical tourism in India. The Author was interested in some of the factors that have promoted medical tourism in India. Some of the factors include advertisement strategies, pricing strategies and privatization of the major health care institutions in India. This article has given some valid and timely contentions. Since this article was a report of a case study, the author has given out his original contributions to the issue of medical tourism. However, the author shows his biasness by failing to report on some of the major challenges facing the medical tourism sector in India. Finally, the article by Brothman is timely, relevant ant reliable. BIBLIOGRAPHY Brotman, BA 2010, ‘Medical Tourism Private Hospitals: Focus India’, vol. 37, issue 1, pp. 45-50, viewed 22 November 2010, Business Source Premier via EBSCOhost. Read More