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Why More Americans Are Seeking Dental Care in Mexico

2009-11-16T14:47:00Z

Dentistry, like so many other branches of American healthcare, is seeing prices rise. As more Americans lose insurance or see their insurer make cutbacks on what their plan will cover, it becomes increasingly difficult to get even the most basic of services. Without insurance, dental costs can be completely prohibitive, and payment for any kind of advanced treatment is completely out of the question.

In response to these rising prices, more working Americans have been seeking dental implants and cosmetic dentistry in Mexico. Many insurance companies will not pay for these treatments within the U.S., leaving clients to shoulder the burden alone. However, outside the U.S., American trained dentists offer the same service for as little as half the price of their in-country counterparts. Like medical tourism, dental tourism is on the rise.

This article will explore the increasingly common option of medical tourism. You'll see why more Americans are choosing to save money by getting cosmetic dentistry in Mexico rather than paying full price in the U.S. It will also discuss dental implants in Mexico and other non-cosmetic procedures that are available.

Cosmetic Dentistry In Mexico

Out of all the dental specialties, cosmetic dentistry is perhaps the most commonly slighted by insurance. The name, however, is misleading: not all cosmetic dentistry is, in fact, purely cosmetic. Cosmetic dentistry includes procedures like root canals, which remove and replace infected tissue, and implants, which replace lost or missing teeth. Unless your teeth are healthy and you have a full set, then you will suffer while eating, drinking, and going about daily life.

Cosmetic dentistry also includes procedures such as tooth whitening and veneers, which, although they do not impact the structure or function of your teeth, nonetheless have an incredible impact. Studies have shown that first impressions are based largely on the way the stranger smiles. Yellowed or crooked teeth can make quite a bad impression, while a straight, beautiful smile is welcoming. In addition, when you know your smile looks great, you're more likely to project confidence.

For all these reasons and more, people choose to seek cosmetic dentistry. But the costs of these procedures in the U.S. are incredibly high, sometimes as much as several hundreds or thousands of dollars. Yet the same quality of care is available just across the border. Cosmetic dentistry in Mexico provides the same procedures with the same quality of care before, during, and after. From the simplest to the most complex procedures, the dentists will take care of you as their U.S. counterparts would. In fact, many dentists trained in the U.S. go on to practice in cosmetic dentistry in Mexico, where their overhead is less expensive. They then pass those savings on to you, providing their quality care for less.

Dental Implants In Mexico

Although dental implants are considered cosmetic dentistry, many who have gotten them would consider them an essential. They can help improve chewing, which in turn helps with digestion. However, to many insurance companies, treatments like these are still considered "cosmetic" and thus not covered (or only minimally covered) by the plan. Some companies do offer supplemental dental insurance, or a specialized plan, but the increased cost is often almost as bad as the cost of the procedure itself. In such a situation, getting the necessary procedure is often just impossible.

Dental implants in Mexico are installed by dentists with the same training as their local counterparts. The same materials are used, and the same results achieved, for a fraction of the price. Patients are able to walk away with great dental implants in Mexico without the financial burden that getting the procedure done stateside would entail.

Dental implants in Mexico, and more general cosmetic dentistry in Mexico, are only a part of the dental care available there. There are many oral surgeons qualified to perform a wide variety of dental procedures depending on your needs. To determine what is best for you, it is generally advisable to consult with your regular dentist, and then contact a medical travel company to get their recommendations. These companies exist solely to connect U.S. citizens who don't want to pay inflated local prices with international doctors, dentists, and specialists who are able to offer excellent care at reduced rates. Working with one of these companies will help you determine the best doctors for each particular specialty, taking any guesswork out of planning your medical procedure. With the right preparation and a bit of planning, you will have an excellent experience, whether you choose to get dental implants, or other cosmetic dentistry in Mexico, or another medical procedure altogether.

Source: Chris Harmen ,author for Health Travel Guides
Ezinearticles.com

Medical Technology Arms Race

2009-11-13T15:30:00Z

must say I'm worried that the Democrats are setting a trap for themselves on Health Care Reform by not really confronting the issue of cost inflation. Why does a CT Scan in America cost so much more than any other country. And it's not just scans, it's the Whole range of services. Although it's very hard to find, there is certain anecdotal evidence that part of the problem is an oversupply of hospitals and medical technology providers. Take Washington, Dc for example.

The Washington, D.C., hospital sector has an excess of hospital beds and a concentration of services at the high end. Four community hospitals; three academic medical centers; a large, nonacademic tertiary care hospital; five specialty hospitals; and a public general hospital all compete to serve a city with a population of only 500,000. In addition, there are two military facilities. Forty percent of patients in this market are drawn from the adjacent Maryland and Virginia suburbs.

In the Libertarian's "perfect market" pipe-dreams, an oversupply should drive down costs of individual services. But that's not what happens. Each hospital that has invested millions in buying CT Scanners must amortize the cost over fewer patients by raising the cost of each scan. The same problem is plaquing pittsburgh.

The region's hospitals are trying to add nearly 1 million square feet of clinical space between 2006 and 2009 -- a construction boom that is raising questions about a potential oversupply of costly hospital resources...

"There happens to be a lot of construction going on, but most of it deals with aging plants and the need to stay current with advances in technology," said Ms. Riefner, who helps hospitals obtain financing for capital projects. "It's not a matter of just spending money for the sake of spending money -- they truly want to deliver the best possible care that they can."

So all the region's hospitals are caught in a technology arms race. No one is trying to figure out how many CT Scanners we need in a region and normal market mechanisms that would punish hospitals or clinics for spending too much on technology don't work because we don't have single payer system that disciplines the free market in every other developed country.

So are we about to pass a big giveaway to the hospitals, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical firms without any way to control the medical technology arms race?

Source: By Jon Taplin
www.tpmcafe.com

Medical Tourism: Its Emergence, Growth and Potential

2009-11-13T15:27:00Z

Healthcare expenses have always been a major cause of concern for the general public. No matter how consciously a person builds up his savings from the earnings, it takes one major bout of illness to drain out a large portion of the accumulated savings. Health disorders are unforeseen and thus many people opt to cover such sudden medical expenses with some medical insurance. However, a health insurance policy sometimes falls a way short in covering up the costs involved in some medical procedures. Even if a person has a health insurance, it still takes a considerable amount of time for the medical procedure to get started. The waiting period for a hip replacement could be more than a year in countries like Britain and Canada. Under such adverse scenario, the general public had to look for other alternatives outside their countries. If they are looking for a cost effective alternative for similar medical procedure, then medical tourism definitely is the way to go for.

Medical tourism is a service extended to the people all over the world to travel to other countries that provide similar medical treatments at comparatively lower costs than their own country. The health care providers of such countries have tie ups with various travel agencies. People desirous of seeking such treatments need to contact either the medical centers of such countries or the travel agencies who work in conjunction with some medical centers to provide healthcare tourism services. Among the various healthcare tourism destinations, India, Singapore and Thailand have emerged as most the popular ones.

If estimates are to be believed at, the medical tourism industry will be worth US $2 billion by 2012. Since the emergence of this industry, people from most of the developed nations have continually flocked to the medical tourism destinations to avail quicker as well as good medical treatments at low cost. A heart-valve replacement that costs around $200,000 in US can be done for a mere $10,000 in a country like India inclusive of the air fare and even a brief vacation package. A knee-replacement procedure costs a lot less in Thailand as compared to that of the United States. Most medical procedures cost around one-tenth of what it costs in countries like United States and Britain. Affordable and prompt medical care has made healthcare tourism a major draw among patients from all over the world.

The immense potential of the medical tourism industry has resulted in more healthcare investments in such countries offering the service. The Indian government is leaving no stones unturned to make it a global healthcare destination. The concerned authorities in Singapore has organized conferences and gained accreditations to attract more medical tourists. Similarly the other countries venturing into medical tourism are also taking necessary steps to popularize themselves. In the next few years medical tourism industry will continue to grow bigger and serve people all over the world with cost effective and superior medical treatments.

Source: 2008sanya.com

Graphic: Medical tourism by country

2009-10-29T13:04:00Z

With U.S. healthcare prices spiraling upward, more and more insurers and individuals are looking abroad for treatment. By some estimates, 650,000 Americans will check into foreign hospitals from Mexico to Thailand this year.

Source: Reuters.com

Americans waste up to $850 billion a year in healthcare

2009-10-27T14:47:00Z

America’s annual healthcare bill could be reduced by $600 billion to $850 billion if the nation learns how to reduce wasteful spending, according to a new report by Thomson Reuters.

A white paper released Monday by the New York-based electronic information services company identifies the most significant drivers of wasteful spending as administrative inefficiency, unnecessary treatment, medical errors and fraud.

“The bad news is that an estimated $700 billion is wasted annually. That's one-third of the nation's healthcare bill,” said Robert Kelley, vice president of healthcare analytics at Thomson Reuters and author of the white paper, in a press release. “The good news is that by attacking waste, healthcare costs can be reduced without adversely affecting the quality of care or access to care.”

According to the study, the biggest causes of waste in healthcare are:

* Unnecessary care (40 percent of healthcare waste, or $250 billion to $325 billion), defined as over-use of antibiotics and diagnostic lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure
* Fraud (19 percent of healthcare waste, or $125 billion to $175 billion), which covers everything from fraudulent Medicare claims to kickbacks for referrals of unnecessary services.
* Administrative inefficiency (17 percent of healthcare waste, or $100 billion to $150 billion), focused on excess paperwork.
* Healthcare provider errors (12 percent of healthcare waste, or $75 billion to $100 billion), defined as medical mistakes.
* Preventable conditions (6 percent of healthcare waste, or $25 billion to $50 billion), focused on hospitalizations to treat uncontrolled chronic conditions such as diabetes, which is less costly to treat when the chronic condition is properly managed through timely access to outpatient care.
* Lack of care coordination (6 percent of healthcare waste, or $25 billion to $50 billion), focused on inefficient communication between healthcare providers, leading to limited access to needed medical records and a resulting duplication of tests or inappropriate treatments.

According to the report, "It is waste when caregivers duplicate tests because results recorded in a patient's record with one provider are not available to another or when medical staff provides inappropriate treatment because relevant history of previous treatment cannot be accessed.”

Source: Healthcarefinancenews.com

Health Care: Is it Driving US Citizens to Move Overseas?

2009-10-21T14:49:00Z

Medical Tourism

Google the phrase “medical tourism,” and you’ll get over 28 million hits. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, September 30, 2009,

“Insured Americans are starting to see some unusual options in their health-provider networks: doctors and hospitals in Singapore, Costa Rica and other foreign destinations.”

M.P. McQueen writes that a “small but growing number” of insurers and employers are offering Americans the option to seek medical treatment abroad. According to the article, open-heart surgery, costing at least $100,000 here, can cost as little as $8,500 in India.

Some 15 or so years ago, billionaire Richard M. DeVos, cofounder of Amway Corp., made headlines in the British press for his personal medical tourism. After being turned down for a heart replacement here because of his age, he traveled to Europe. According to news reports at the time, he “donated” about $50,000 to a hospital in England, where he then received a heart transplant at no charge, thanks to the British National Health system. DeVos is listed at #117 in Forbes list of world billionaires. Known for his extreme right-wing conservatism which would deny universal coverage to average Americans, DeVos apparently has no compunction about taking advantage of taxpayer subsidies for his health care when it suits him, just as he has no compunction about having taxpayers foot the bill for the new arena for his Orlando Magic basketball team.

Americans Abroad

Estimates place about 6.6 million Americans living abroad, with that number growing rapidly. Richard C. Morais, writing for Forbes.com, reports on a “new lobbying effort” by US retirees living in Mexico to expand Medicare to cover Americans in Mexico. According to Morais, Paul Crist, a former aide to Sen. Sarbanes now living in Puerto Vallarta, has formed an organization to lobby to get Medicare accepted there.

According to the AMMAC (Americans for Medicare in Mexico) website, the choice for many to move to Mexico is

“almost an economic necessity. In a survey conducted by a team led by Dr. David Warner, Professor of Public Health Policy at the University of Texas, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Policy, it was found that the lower cost of living is the primary reason seniors choose to move to Mexico. The median income for a retired couple living full time in Mexico is $35,000 per year. There are few places in the U.S. where $35,000 is sufficient for a comfortable lifestyle, while in Mexico that sum is quite adequate.”

(As a side note, I would like to point out that to some of us planning to retire abroad, $35,000 annually is a large budget. An average Social Security check for a worker retiring in 2009 is about $1,500, resulting in an annual income of only $18,000.)

The same survey found that 63% of Americans retired in Mexico had paid into the Medicare system for 31 years or more.

A December, 2008 article in International Living, a well-known purveyor of information for those seeking an overseas life, states:

“We can’t afford to live in the States anymore.”

We’d just finished dinner with a couple of International Living readers. They’ve decided to buy a house in Merida, where we live, and move here permanently.

“Health care and insurance costs alone are killing us. Add property tax, and it’s too much…especially when you consider that the value of our house in the States is falling fast.”

Suzan and I have heard this a lot lately, from Americans wondering where they can go to retire in style.”

In fact, the organization regularly assesses the cost and quality of health care in all of its discussions of any given country. So do major living abroad resources, like Transitions Abroad, Escape Artist, and others.

The AARO (Association of Americans Resident Overseas) has requested its members to submit their perspectives on health care in the countries they live in.

Obviously, health care is a concern for Americans who live abroad. Nowhere, however, could I find any information about how many Americans are driven to move overseas primarily because of the cost and quality of of health care.

Source:FutureExpats.com
Boomersabroad.com

Hospitals in Largest U.S. Cities Offer the Least Value.

2009-10-20T13:53:00Z

Study Finds Markets Such as Los Angeles and San Francisco Score Particularly Low, while Charlotte, Rochester and Pittsburgh Score Highest

According to the most recent Hospital Value Index[TM] results, a study that analyzed data from more than 4,500 hospitals across the United States, hospitals in the largest U.S. cities generally offer a low value of patient care compared to elsewhere in the country.

"Our findings conclude that these urban areas offer less affordable and less efficient care, which affected the overall performance of the market," said Hal Andrews, Chief Executive Officer of Data Advantage, the company that developed and maintains the Hospital Value Index[TM].

"Ironically, we found that the hospitals with which the White House and its advisers are most intimately familiar deliver low healthcare value against every benchmark - city, state, CMS Region, and the U.S."

For example, the Chicago market ranked 88th out of the 100 largest markets, just one spot behind McAllen, Texas and one spot ahead of Honolulu. Other than Fort Myers and Las Vegas, the lowest-ranking large markets were all in California. The top five states in delivering value were North Dakota, Iowa, Montana, South Dakota, and Maine. The bottom five states were New Mexico, Arkansas, California, Hawaii, and Nevada.

"Like every other good and service, price is an essential part of healthcare value," said Andrews. "For California, prices are relatively high, even after adjusting for national wage variances. The uninsured, underinsured and health savings account members are disproportionately harmed by the high prices, without receiving superior quality, outcomes or patient experience in exchange."

"The rules have changed -- whether because of the economy, health reform or Value-Based purchasing, and quality alone is not a sustainable strategy for the U.S. hospital industry," said John Morrow, one of the authors of the study. "These organizations will need to be accountable to their communities for their performance on value and be transparent about doing so. The Hospital Value Index[TM] is a means toward that end."

The latest study from the Hospital Value Index[TM] used the most current and comprehensive set of publicly available data, including Hospital Compare data released by CMS in July 2009, to analyze more than 4,500 U.S. hospitals to discover where patients can find the best value of care in their community. The Hospital Value Index[TM] researchers analyzed a variety of public data on hospital quality, price, efficiency, and patient satisfaction. The Hospital Value Index[TM] is updated frequently to reflect the dynamic impact of change occurring in the hospital industry.

Data Advantage has released the complete 2009-2010 Hospital Value Index[TM] results on September 15 in Washington, D.C. For more information on the Hospital Value Index[TM] findings, please visit www.HospitalValueIndex.com or www.TheHealthcareValueBlog.com.

Source: Highbeam Research

Cottonwood man travels to New Zealand for medical tourism

2009-10-19T12:54:00Z

For as long as he can remember, Ben Wordinger has had a bum shoulder.

Two surgeries and countless trips to Arizona hospitals did little to ease the pain.

"I was tired of taking pills, tired of watching the clock to take the next pill just to take the edge off the pain to function," admitted Wordinger.

Now, at age 51, doctors figured Wordinger likely would need an implant.

Insurance, however, wouldn't cover the cost estimated anywhere from $80,000 to $120,000.

"When you're in a lot of pain, you'd go around the world 10 times to get out of pain, that's where I was," Wordinger said.

Wordinger didn't have to go around the world, but he came close.

Through a friend, Wordinger learned about Medtral, a company based out of New Zealand that offers medical tourism.

Doctors there said they could do a shoulder transplant for 1/6th of what it would have cost Wordinger here in the United States.

"Hmmm, let's see, 1/6th the cost by a doctor trained here with materials made here," said Wordinger. "That's a no-brainer."

"I think there should be come concerns," said Paul Stander, Chief Medical Officer at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center.

Stander says Good Samaritan's doctors often see patients who have had complications from overseas medical care.

"We had to pick up the pieces," said Stander. "It's not easy. There is usually incomplete information as to what exactly happened. It makes it harder."

Stander said many doctors, because of malpractice concerns, will not take on a patient who is having problems after seeing a doctor in another country.

He said anyone considering medical tourism should line up a doctor willing to handle possible complications here in the U.S. before heading overseas.

"We've seen people who get joint replacements have bleeding where the joint was put in, that can be a real nasty thing," Stander said. "It's not easy to go halfway around the world to have it dealt with."

Wordinger ultimately made the trip from his home in Cottonwood to New Zealand to have the surgery.

Four weeks later Wordinger said he's 100 percent pain free.

He recommends MedTral and their medical tourism program in the highest terms.

"Totally positive, top notch, can't think of anything better," said Wordinger.

It's a process Wordinger considers head and shoulders above the rest.

Source: abc15.com

Opportunities for medical tourism growth in Latin America

2009-10-16T14:05:00Z

With healthcare costs skyrocketing in America and other nations, markets across Latin America offers opportunities for growth in the field of medical tourism. Brazil, Colombia, and Chile have a strong stake in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology markets, serving as bases for the research and development and manufacturing stages for companies such as Pfizer and Merck. Panama, Mexico, Colombia, and other Latin American countries have already begun to explore the partnership between the lodging and healthcare industries through medical tourism, constructing major, well-regarded hospital facilities and attracting high-quality hotel and resort developments to accommodate guests and patients.

Affordability is a primary driver of medical tourism, especially in a down economy. Even in countries where basic procedures are covered, elective procedures like cosmetic surgery are often very expensive and not funded by either insurance or the government. According to market research, rhinoplasty and other surgical procedures conducted in Latin America can cost approximately one-third the amount patients are paying in the United States. These cost savings even take into account lodging while abroad and travel expenses to and from the patient’s home country.

Medical tourists are also concerned about the quality of service, facilities, and medical practitioners in a foreign country; hence, a desire for lower costs does not necessarily come at the expense of quality of care. Associations such as the Joint Commission International (JCI) and the Medical Tourism Association are working toward certifying and accrediting international hospitals that serve foreign patients.

Hospital Punta Pacífica in Panama has partnered with Johns Hopkins Medicine International to provide world-renowned collaborative research and medical services for the benefit of patients. Colombia is gaining worldwide prominence in cardiovascular and transplant surgery and often receives patients from abroad who cannot obtain such quality care within their home countries.

Certain major Latin American markets are showing relatively strong RevPAR levels, even in the midst of the global economic downturn. Revenue growth at Brazilian resorts, for example, has strengthened since 2008. This is partly attributable to exchange rate conversions and continued growth in average rate, which has noted sharp declines in many international markets.

Although occupancy levels are down in some Latin American markets, hotel development projects are still surfacing in countries such as Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil. Hotel investors in populous markets throughout Latin America have shown increasing interest in mixed-used and adaptive reuse developments. In Colombia, mixed-use hotel development projects are surfacing along the northern coast and in major cities such as Bogotá, Cartagena, and Barranquilla.

In addition to cost savings, quality of care, and accessibility, many medical tourists are searching for exotic destinations where they can readily obtain consults with medical practitioners during their time of recovery. Hence, beach and mountain destinations, as well as places rich in cultural history are a major draw for patients. The Johns Hopkins-affiliated Hospital Punta Pacifica in Panama City, Panama, offers lodging adjacent to its world-class hospital facilities. The hotel accommodations allow guests to recover in a setting more akin to a high-end hotel than a hospital ward. The hotel serves as a liaison between the guest and the hospital by providing patients with additional amenities that include concierge services, trip planning, tourist attraction packages, and translation services. More than 25 percent of the hospital’s patients arrive from the United States.

The unique value proposition presented by medical tourism demands that the healthcare and lodging industries work in unison to attract guests/patients. Based on the number of development projects currently in the pipeline in Latin America, investors see the potential for growth, and many markets throughout Central and South America remain untapped.

Patients seeking outbound medical tourism need reputable lodging and healthcare options that ease the burdens of medical procedures and the recovery process. In this capacity, Latin American hotels act as a liaison with local hospitals and doctors to provide cost-effective, accessible, quality care for the medical tourist as a patient, and a lodging environment that caters to his or her needs as a guest.

Source: Hvs.com

Americans are flocking to Costa Rica for stem cell treatments. Is it a miracle cure or false hope?

2009-10-15T12:54:00Z

Dr. Orlando Morales is something of a celebrity at Costa Rica’s University of Medical Science, sauntering through the halls in his white lab coat. On a recent walk, students and faculty greeted him with “Feliz cumpleanos, doctor.” He just turned 68.

With the excitement of a young doctor fresh out of medical school, Morales’ eyes light up when he observes the petri dishes that harvest “celulas madre,” or stem cells, from mice.

“It’s practically science fiction,” Morales said of what he considers the medicine’s new miracle worker. Morales is one of the firmest believers around in the power of stem cell treatments.

“After a heart attack, they can begin to make new tissue. In a gland, which for example has to make insulin, the cells begin to create insulin. Nervous tissue, they regenerate it … It’s a panacea,” he said.

An increasing number of foreigners are undergoing stem cell treatment in Costa Rica for ailments from bone fractures to multiple sclerosis. Costa Rican doctors say they are providing these medical tourists with groundbreaking treatments. But stem cell scientists in the U.S. accuse Costa Rica of offering false hope by pushing techniques that have not been scientifically proven.

Dr. Fabio Solano — who directs the stem cell institute at San Jose’s CIMA Hospital, one of the country’s leading private hospitals — says his team has treated as many as 400 patients with procedures that involve stem cells.

Costa Rica has eschewed the contentious debate around stem cells by prohibiting work with human embryos and instead promoting research on what’s known as “adult” stem cells — derived from tissue including body fat and umbilical blood or tissue. In Costa Rica, where Catholicism is the state religion, working with human embryos is out of the question.

Embryonic stem cells are considered a goldmine that could lead to treatment for any number of ailments. Unlike adult stem cells, embryonic ones can evolve into any of more than 200 cell types.

And yet, Solano said, many “miracle” treatments have been accomlished with adult stem cells. “We have demonstrated that adult stem cells are as good as embryonic.”

Success stories have grabbed media attention, with TV networks running stories like “Paralyzed valley woman holds hope in Costa Rica treatment” and “Glenburn boy returns from Costa Rica after having adult stem cell therapy.”

But the buzz has made doctors in the U.S. nervous.

“The lay press is unfortunately replete with many overstatements and misconceptions about what can be accomplished in the short term by stem cell biology,” said Dr. Jack Kessler, an expert in stem cell research at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Ill.

In March, President Barack Obama issued an executive order that lifted Bush-era restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research, but much of the treatment is still a long way off, experts say.

Meanwhile, Costa Rican legislators are putting the finishing touches on a law to promote and regulate adult stem cell research and treatment across a spectrum of diseases. This could fuel further debate over techniques that U.S. doctors say have only produced anecdotal success — but it certainly won’t stem the flow of stem cell medical tourism.

According to Solano, Americans already make up close to 90 percent of the stem cell patients at CIMA Hospital.

Kessler warned that clinics around the world are exploiting patients’ hopes by offering treatment that he calls a “placebo effect,” and hasn’t been proven to work.

“There’s really little if any evidence at the present time — where we are with the current technology — that stem cell therapies are useful for disorders like spinal cord injury, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and some of the other things that are being treated with stem cells,” Kessler said.

Determined to prove the experts wrong, Jennifer Blankenship, a 49-year-old resident of Denver, Colo., made her second visit to Costa Rica in August to treat MS.

Blankenship had looked around in the U.S. for stem cell treatment but could only find offers from university labs that “wanted to charge $100,000 to $150,000 for me to be a guinea pig,” she said.

Last month she underwent two weeks of treatment at CIMA Hospital for about $10,000. A December 2008 study by the journal Cell Stem Cell found that international stem cell treatment hovers around an average of $20,000.

Blankenship said that within hours of her first IV injection, “I started moving my left leg, which I hadn’t moved for years.”

Following her second visit, she said, “I’m so excited,” detailing what she described as further progress toward recovery. Costa Rican doctors conducted liposuction to extract and transplant stem cells from her own fat tissue, as well as transplanted further cells derived from umbilical cords. Blankenship said she was charged up with some 200 million stem cells. “I pictured them like little Pacmen,” she joked.

After the trip, Blankenship says she took five steps, then nine. She said: “In the coming weeks, my physical therapist and I are going to my neurologist’s office to show him how I can walk.” And once she can walk on her own again, she said, “I’d love to come to Costa Rica just for fun.”

Source: top10costarica.com

Healthcare Reform in the United States May Actually Increase Medical Tourism

2009-10-14T15:52:00Z

Medical tourism continues to be a force with the potential to exert significant influence on healthcare in the United States. For that reason, experts have weighed in recently on how efforts to reform healthcare may either inhibit or encourage growth in the number of Americans opting to become medical tourists.

Just as medical tourism has the potential to be transformative to certain aspects of healthcare here in this country, Dark Daily believes that medical tourism may also encourage greater globalization of pathology services and clinical laboratory testing. For both reasons, pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will find recent commentary to be enlightening.

One expert on medical tourism is Paul Mango, who heads up the healthcare consultancy at McKinsey & Co. He argues that, whatever form that healthcare reform takes in the United States, the resulting model of universal healthcare will not be detrimental to medical tourism. In his view, it is a simple case of supply and demand. Even if, post-reform, the cost of care came under control or actually declined, Mango notes that the addition of large numbers of newly-insured patients into the U.S. healthcare system would increase demand in a healthcare system that currently has little excess capacity.

With only so many hospital beds to fill, waiting lists in this country would grow. That would force some patients to look overseas for healthcare even as hospitals here scrambled to accommodate an overwhelming workload and potentially decreased profits.

For this reason, some Americans will opt for medical tourism. “One of the biggest myths about healthcare reform is that because you’ll have access to health insurance, you’ll have access to care,” Mango stated publicly. “They [these patients] can say, ‘I’m tired of waiting. I’m just going to pay out of pocket and go to Thailand.”

In recent years, estimates of the number of Americans who traveled overseas as medical tourists have ranged as high as 500,000 people annually. But Mango and his colleagues at McKinsey believe the actual number is much lower. In a May 2008 study conducted by consultants at McKinsey & Co between 5,000 and 10,000 Americans seek healthcare outside the country each year. The statistics are based on five years of researching patient admission records from healthcare providers at the top 20 medical tourism destinations worldwide.

By studying this data, Mango was able to make an interesting observation about what motivates Americans to travel abroad for healthcare. “Many of the patients were uninsured, and if you’re paying out-of pocket, you can pay almost four to six times less for surgeries in certain markets,” said Mango during an interview with Modern Healthcare.

One example McKinsey supplied is that of an aortic valve replacement. In the United States, that procedure would cost $100,000. By contrast, it would cost about $12,000 at an equally credentialed and high quality hospital in Asia.

During the past 24 months, several hospitals in the United States have begun to compete for this medical tourism business. By offering to do surgeries and other procedures during times of the week when facilities are underutilized (like on Fridays and weekends), they have managed to create competitively-priced packages that they offer to those U.S. employers that incorporate a medical tourism option in their health benefits packages.

Dark Daily observes that this activity demonstrates how the threat of competition from overseas hospitals can motivate healthcare providers in the United States to be more innovative in how to provide high quality services at prices comparable to those offered by the hospitals serving the medical tourist trade. There is always some unused capacity that can be offered, based on marginal cost pricing, at attractive rates.

As the number of medical tourists increases, it should be expected that lab testing may travel with them. Using overnight delivery services, it is simple to get a lab specimen from where it was collected to almost any location in the world. Thus, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if the laboratory in the overseas hospital that performs the service has the patient ship specimens pre-admittance and post-discharge. That would ensure all the lab testing was performed by the same lab. At the same time, that would be a one step forward in the globalization of laboratory testing services

source: Darkdaily.com

Integrated Hospital Complex – a new concept in Medical Tourism

2009-10-14T15:41:00Z

Singapore offers a wide variety of accommodation types to suit different budgets, needs and preferences. These range from budget and boutique hotels, to 6 stars hotels and fully furnished serviced apartments in good locations.

Despite these choices, it is sometimes a challenge to find the right combination that pleases a fussy patient.

However this problem may be alleviated when a new integrated hospital complex is scheduled for completion towards the end of 2010.

This 19 storey Mediplex comprises a medical centre with specialist suites, hospital, and a hotel. This concept is believed to be the first in Asia and the objective is to capture a big slice of the estimated S$100 billion medical tourism market.

The medical centre has 189 consultation suites to house a wide spectrum of medical specialists. The hospital next door has 11 operating theatres, three day surgery units with 60 attached beds, an intensive care unit with 23 beds, radiotherapy unit, clinical laboratories and a full-service pharmacy.

Connected to the hospital is the hotel and guests have a choice of standard hotel rooms, serviced apartments and villas. All accommodations feature large bathrooms with rain showers, bay windows presenting floor to ceiling view.

The hotel is designed to offer a lush tropical garden ambience, with large spas, gymnasiums, six pools, ballroom, banquet hall, seminar and conference rooms, and a floor dedicated to retail food and beverage outlets.

A patient can check into the hotel in the morning and walks over to the medical centre to consult the doctor. Then he goes for lunch in one of the many restaurants and proceed to do some investigative tests in the afternoon. He returns to the hotel a few steps away, do some window shopping in the evening follow by a good massage in the spa. The next day he goes to the hospital next door for surgery and returns to the hotel to recuperate. All these activities are done in the same medical complex without leaving the building.

Family members and companions can stay in the same hotel, and enjoy the comfort and convenience of world-class facilities and at the same time provide emotional and physical support to the patient. This is healthcare and wellness at its best.

Source: mindsandbody.com

Brits flock to Cyprus for medical treatment

2009-10-13T13:07:00Z

Increasing numbers of Brits are travelling to Cyprus for medical treatment, according to the health tourism website, Treatment Abroad.

Keith Pollard, the Director of the website, explained that the main driver of treatment abroad is cost. In some cases treatments in private healthcare clinics outside of Britain can be 70 per cent less. In addition to this, some treatments may be available abroad that cannot be found in the UK.

He reported that 40 per cent of medical tourists are travelling for cheaper dental surgery. "The most popular countries for this are Cyprus, Poland and Hungary."

He added that "25 percent (of British Health Tourists) are seeking low cost cosmetic surgery in countries such as Spain, Czech Republic, Greece and South Africa."

According to Treatment Abroad's dedicated Cyprus Webpage "Cyprus is a popular medical tourism destination offering low cost dentistry and cosmetic surgery and enabling people to combine treatment with a holiday in Cyprus or a city break in Nicosia.

Health Tourism figures for 2009 are not yet available, but the website estimates that 150,300 British tourists will have gone abroad for cheap treatments. This is almost twice the 2006 total of 77,000.

Source: Cyprus Mail.com

US citizens living without health insurance

2009-10-12T15:23:00Z

Living without health insurance is a huge problem in the United States. It is a most stressful situation, causing many to search for options other than traditional healthcare.

Millions of Americans live without health insurance and most do not know what options are available for them. They wait for a catastrophic event to happen, hoping that it won’t, and then panic sets in as they stress of the mountain of debt that they are facing.

However, it must be stated that not having insurance in itself is not a sign of negligence. There are many whose profession does not allow, or pay for, any kind of comprehensive medical benefits. There are many who are self-employed, and private options are out of their league. There are also those who have chronic conditions, such as diabetes, who find it difficult, if not impossible, to find insurance that they can afford, if indeed there is even a company which will accept them. These individuals, in spite of their lack of culpability in the matter, still feel a tremendous weight of guilt for not being able to provide a basic level of coverage for themselves.

For many, state insurance is available, but for most of these, they make too much to qualify, and yet they don’t make enough to be able to afford any kind of private coverage. The dilemma is great and the stress of the problem causes even more health problems, compounding the situation immensely.

One option that is often not considered, is that of medical tourism. That is, finding treatment outside of your own country. Well, it sound exotic, expensive and risky. However, that is not the case in these days of fast travel and competition against the American dollar. Still, for many, the option of flying to India, the Phillipines, or some other far-off destination is out of the question.

However, most Americans do not consider what I call “The Mexico Option”. Just across our southern border, Americans are travelling by the hundreds of thousands each year for quality medical and dental treatment and are in most cases thrilled with the level of care they receive. Best of all, they are thrilled because of the price. It is not unusual to save as much as 70 or 80 percent of the cost of surgery or treatment as compared to U.S. costs.

Certainly, someone living in the northern United States, would not benefit by going to Mexico for routine doctors visits or dental appointments. But anyone (especially someone with no insurance) who is facing a surgery or intensive treatments (such as cancer therapies) for which they will pay out of pocket (or out of their future pockets) would be foolish not to consider a trip across the border for such treatments. Travel to Mexico is cheap compare to other medical tourism destinations, and there are referral agencies which pre-screen doctors and help clients get financing for their entire trip: travel, treatment and recovery included.

For those who live within one day’s driving distance of the border the options are amazing. Dental and Medical procedures may be had for only the price of a tank of gas and prices that are drastically less than those at home.

In addition to traditional therapies, there are complementary, alternative therapies available in Mexico as well.

Mr. Donald Smith (name changed for privacy), a resident of Casa Grande, AZ, was facing surgery for a tumor. He had been told that they needed to shrink the tumor first with radiation and chemo and the effects were going to be very hard on him. He opted on crossing the border and going to an alternative clinic which used only very mild chemo and intensive intravenous vitamin A treatments. In a short time the tumor was reduced in size significantly and he was then able to have it removed surgically. His experience was amazingly pleasant and he says he would do it over again.

Not as critical, but still important to many, is the decision to have cosmetic surgery performed, but facing prohibive costs in the U.S. But when you consider that you can make a trip to a resort area in Mexico, get a facelift, tummytuck, bariatric procedure and many other electives at a fraction of the American cost, then the Mexico Option becomes quite appealing, especially with the choice of financing thrown into the equation.

Mexico medical tourism certainly provides an alternative for a multitude of people who either have no insurance or are underinsured. It is vital, however, to research your options carefully, because optimal treatment is not automatically guaranteed anywhere, much less in Mexico. There are numerous hospitals with international accreditation and many, many doctors with international training. And Mexican doctors are known for their gentle, caring demeanor and the unhurried time they spend with their patients.

Border towns provide the least expensive options for those who live within driving distance, but Guadalara, Mexico City and Monterrey are medical meccas for the many thousands who travel there for world class treatment. Research your options and make your decisions base upon sound evidence and reliable facts, and you will have a quality experience.
Mark Hillis is the author of “The Complete Guide to Finding Medical Treatment in Mexico”. His research was born out of his own medical needs and lack of health insurance. Check out his site at:
http://www.medicaltourismmexico.biz

source: HuntsvillePr.com

85% of People Would Consider Medical Tourism

2009-10-09T14:43:00Z

Medical tourism has been around since the Romans. In recent years however, growing numbers of people are traveling across borders in search of the benefits of treatment overseas. A recent survey carried out by AllMedicalTourism.com, the leading online portal for Medical Tourism, found that 85% would consider travelling overseas for treatment. When asked what their answer would have been 5 years ago, only 33% would have considered it a viable option then. Why the enormous change?

"We believe the growth in acceptance of medical tourism is due to a combination of factors; cheaper airline tickets, better global communications and rapidly rising standards of healthcare around the World" states Rob Passmore, CEO of AllMedicalTourism.com.

"The cost savings that people can achieve are also significant. We are seeing an average saving of 55% being made by our users, compared to receiving the treatment at home - a hip replacement in a JCI accredited hospital in, say, India could cost $7,000 compared to $45,000 in the USA."

Management consulting firm Deloitte supports this view. A recently published report on medical tourism states that they expected medical tourists from the USA alone to rise from 1.5m in 2008 to up to 10m in 2010. So what are the barriers to this growth?

"We believe the only limiting factor is providing patients with good, reliable information as they start their research into their overseas healthcare option. The need we identified was helping patients compare their options on a consistent basis. They didn't know where to start or who to trust - AllMedicalTourism.com provides that transparent and easy to use start point" adds Passmore.

source: Prweb.com

Medical Tourism and Hospitality in Latin America: The Lodging Industry’s Latest Nip/Tuck.

2009-10-09T14:36:00Z

An overview of the rising phenomenon known as medical tourism and the potential synergy between the lodging and healthcare industries in Latin America.

Skyrocketing healthcare costs in the United States and other nations have spawned increasing interest in seeking medical procedures abroad. The phenomenon, known as medical tourism, is bringing increasing demand to select lodging markets in foreign countries. High demand for this synergy between global tourism, hospitality, and healthcare services has the potential to fuel mutual growth, putting international hotel and resort operations in a position to take advantage.

Markets across Latin America offer opportunities for growth in medical tourism. Brazil, Colombia, and Chile have a strong stake in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology markets, serving as bases for the research and development and manufacturing stages for companies such as Pfizer and Merck. Panama, Mexico, Colombia, and other Latin American countries have already begun to explore the partnership between the lodging and healthcare industries through medical tourism, constructing major, well-regarded hospital facilities and attracting high-quality hotel and resort developments to accommodate guests and patients.

The following article will shed light on this phenomenon and how medical tourism in Latin America is currently creating a unique value proposition for the lodging industry.

Medical Tourism: Why this niche market is poised for growth

Medical tourism is loosely defined as the process of traveling abroad in order to obtain health care, inclusive of everything from routine dental procedures to complex surgeries. The industry is driven primarily by the following factors: cost savings, quality of care, and accessibility.¹
Cost Savings
Affordability is a primary driver of medical tourism, especially in a down economy. Even in countries where basic procedures are covered, elective procedures like cosmetic surgery are often very expensive and not funded by either insurance or the government. According to market research, rhinoplasty and other surgical procedures conducted in Latin America can cost approximately one-third the amount patients are paying in the United States. These cost savings even take into account lodging while abroad and travel expenses to and from the patient’s home country.

Quality Care
Medical tourists are also concerned about the quality of service, facilities, and medical practitioners in a foreign country; hence, a desire for lower costs does not necessarily come at the expense of quality of care. Associations such as the Joint Commission International (JCI) and the Medical Tourism Association are working toward certifying and accrediting international hospitals that serve foreign patients.

Sunset view from Panama City, Panama, one of Latin America’s up-and-coming medical tourism markets

Many international healthcare facilities, some in developing nations, have obtained accreditation for high-quality facilities that meet or exceed those available in a foreign patient’s home country.

For instance, Hospital Punta Pacífica in Panama has partnered with Johns Hopkins Medicine International to provide world-renowned collaborative research and medical services for the benefit of patients. Colombia is gaining worldwide prominence in cardiovascular and transplant surgery and often receives patients from abroad who cannot obtain such quality care within their home countries.

Accessibility
Medical tourists are often looking for immediate care for which they would have to wait weeks or months in their home country. Some experts² predict that medical tourism could jump tenfold in the next decade, a rise partly attributable to the increasing accessibility to doctors, procedures, and medical facilities across international borders.

Accessibility also relates to the ease of finding information about foreign medical and lodging facilities, especially given that patients are not comfortable with obscurity. Entities such as the Medical Travel Authority and MedRetreat offer resources to help patients research a variety of questions related to medical tourism, easing concerns related to the backgrounds of doctors, dentists, and surgeons, as well as the success stories of foreign healthcare facilities.

Medical Tourism and Hotels: Opportunities

Certain major Latin American markets are showing relatively strong RevPAR levels, even in the midst of the global economic downturn. Revenue growth at Brazilian resorts, for example, has strengthened since 2008.³ This is partly attributable to exchange rate conversions and continued growth in average rate, which has noted sharp declines in many international markets.

Although occupancy levels are down in some Latin American markets, hotel development projects are still surfacing in countries such as Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil. Hotel investors in populous markets throughout Latin America have shown increasing interest in mixed-used and adaptive reuse developments. In Colombia, mixed-use hotel development projects are surfacing along the northern coast and in major cities such as Bogotá, Cartagena, and Barranquilla. The World Travel & Tourism Council expects tourism to remain strong in countries like Mexico, where the expected growth in lodging will generate approximately two million jobs in the industry over the decade, according to their 2009 forecast.⁴

In addition to cost savings, quality of care, and accessibility, many medical tourists are searching for exotic destinations where they can readily obtain consults with medical practitioners during their time of recovery. Hence, beach and mountain destinations, as well as places rich in cultural history are a major draw for patients.

The lodging and healthcare industries can work in concert to supply medical tourists with the staff, facilities, and amenities necessary to fulfill their needs as patients and lodging patrons. The Johns Hopkins-affiliated Hospital Punta Pacifica in Panama City, Panama, offers lodging adjacent to its world-class hospital facilities. The hotel accommodations allow guests to recover in a setting more akin to a high-end hotel than a hospital ward. The hotel serves as a liaison between the guest and the hospital by providing patients with additional amenities that include concierge services, trip planning, tourist attraction packages, and translation services. More than 25% of the hospital’s patients arrive from the United States.

The lack of marketing efforts about medical tourism in Latin America has hindered its growth in previous decades. However, according to Bloomberg News, Mexico has invested considerably in marketing medical tourism by hosting trade shows and conferences that promote the new medical facilities and hotels in the market. Mexico’s largest private hospital chain, Grupo Empresarial Angeles, has committed approximately $700 million to build hospitals over the course of the next decade. According to local economic officials and development offices in major cities in Colombia, the presence of state-of-the-art technology and healthcare facilities is strengthening and expected to attract more diversified investments in years to come.

In fact, Empresas Bánmédica, the largest Chilean-based private health organization and one of the largest companies in South America, is working in collaboration with several clinics across the continent in order to foster growth in the healthcare industry. Their upcoming development project, Clínica Portoazul in Barranquilla, Colombia, is expected to break ground in late 2009 in a free-trade zone and projected to yield substantial profits during its second year of operation. The 233,577-square-foot, 121-bed hospital will be the largest of its kind on the northern coast of Colombia and will employ a host of highly reputed medical practitioners.

A proposed hotel, Centro Internacional del Caribe, is planned to be built by 2011 on a site adjacent to the hospital; moreover, retail and commercial development projects, such as restaurants and local shops, are expected to attract local, national, and international demand. The hotel will also provide a high-quality, diverse amenity set, including concierge services that will enable guests and patients to experience convenience and comfort with respect to both the medical and the tourism aspects of their visit.

Conclusion

The unique value proposition presented by medical tourism demands that the healthcare and lodging industries work in unison to attract guests/patients. Based on the number of development projects currently in the pipeline in Latin America, investors see the potential for growth, and many markets throughout Central and South America remain untapped.

Patients seeking outbound medical tourism need reputable lodging and healthcare options that ease the burdens of medical procedures and the recovery process. In this capacity, Latin American hotels act as a liaison with local hospitals and doctors to provide cost-effective, accessible, quality care for the medical tourist as a patient, and a lodging environment that caters to his or her needs as a guest.

References:

1 2008 industry report by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions
2 Sources at Deloitte Consulting
3 Jones Lang LaSalle
4 Travel Daily News International

source: 4hoteliers.com
www.hvs.com

"Competitive Issues In The Global Healthcare Market" An Exclusive Interview with John C Goodman

2009-10-09T13:42:00Z

1) John, in November, 2007 the Center published a paper on Medical Tourism, Medical Tourism: Global Competition in Healthcare. Do you have a sense of how the U.S. market for medical travel and medical tourism has developed over that two-year period?

John Goodman: yes I think we are in the very very early stages of what could amount to an explosion in traffic across border to get medical care. Every major health insurer in the U.S. is looking at ways to take advantage of lower cost, high quality care across the border. Most of the attention has been given to hospitals in Thailand, Singapore and India. These hospitals are quite good and they are competing internationally and I expect the Americans will choose these (or other) markets more relative to the prices and quality of care available.

2) Parallels are being drawn between how globalization forever changed the automotive and electronics industries and the price and quality issues now facing U.S. healthcare providers. Do you think this is a fair and accurate observation?

John Goodman: Well I think these are very different markets and healthcare is a services market and it is not easy to take those services across the border. Now, we have the internet with which we can do a lot, we can take advantage of the places around the world, but there is a limit to that. Clearly reading diagnostic scans is something that can be done anywhere in the world and certain kinds of diagnosis can be done in any parts of the world but you can’t do surgery long distance. So I really think that what is causing huge interest in medical tourism is high cost and inefficiency of care in United States.

3) There seems to be growing indications that U.S. providers are increasingly concerned about losing revenue from patients seeking lower cost alternatives, both domestically and internationally. Do you believe that U.S. hospitals, that historically have not needed or been willing to compete on price, can, in fact compete effectively?

John Goodman: Well I think many of them are already competing it is just that they are not competing for American patients. There are about 50 hospitals in United States that are actively recruiting patients from South and Central America and many of them have representatives in these countries and are forming relationships with doctors and trying to generate businesses and most of these hospitals charge if not a package price, something close to it, so they are right now competing. In addition there are a number of facilities competing for patients from Canada, and as a matter of fact there are several businesses that have sprung up that connect Canadian patients with American facilities. And almost always the Canadian patient gets a price package and usually it is a very low price well below what the Americans are paying.

4) The 2009 market forecasts, from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, for instance, are noticeably lower than 2008 forecasts for Americans willing to travel internationally for care; 40% in 2008 vs. 10% in 2009. What are your thoughts on market issues that might have caused these projections to change so dramatically? Do you think economic realities and concerns among consumers is having a significant impact?

John Goodman: No, I just think that we don’t have very good statistics on this market and the forecasts are just reflecting that. I think the traffic is increasing and not decreasing and again it is two way traffic. We have people coming to the United States from Latin America and Canada and paying package prices for care that Americans don’t get to pay. And we have Americans leaving the country to go to Latin America and other places because of high cost in this country.

5) One of the developments in medical travel is the substantial willingness of patients to travel out of their local area, but inside the Country, for lower cost quality care. This Domestic Medical Travel market appears to be picking up steam as a number of U.S. providers are opening their arms to this business. Is this an example of the market working as it should?

John Goodman: Well, it is an example of price competition because the reason people will travel to other city for care is because there is a lower cost. Most patients in US healthcare system will never see a real price for anything. So the providers are not competing for those patients on the basis of price. When they don’t compete on price they don’t compete on quality either. So the question is to what extents are we going to encourage the price competition. In order to really make this work I think the patient has to be paying the marginal cost of care and so if the patient gains financially from travelling a lot more patients are going to travel.

6) Of course, the elephant in the room looks a lot like the health plans. With larger employers representing a big portion of the market for medical travel patients, what are the incentives for insurers to fully embrace and integrate international providers into their networks?

John Goodman: What insurers need to do is allow the person they are insuring to share in the gains from travel. If I travel to another city for heart surgery and there is a $10,000 savings the insurance company have to give me at least a half of it and if they do then I will be more willing to travel. So the insurance company and the employer is going to make money if people travel to lower cost destinations. But there are going to have to share those gains with the employee or the insured if they expect people to be willing to do it.

7) Finally, John, what do you see in the health policy reform agenda that will impact the development of the U.S. market for medical travel?

John Goodman: Health reform, the topic that we are currently talking about is going to lead to higher cost and there is nothing in any other reform bills before congress that can realistically be expected to reduce healthcare spending. So if healthcare spending in United States continues to grow at twice the rate of growth of our income people are going to have to look outside the country in order to get low cost and high quality medical care. So bad reforms will accelerate interest in crossing the border for healthcare.

Bio:

John C. Goodman founded the NCPA in 1983 and has served as President and CEO since the center's inception. The Wall Street Journal called Dr. Goodman "the father of Health Savings Accounts," and is known for his ideas on ways to transfer power from government to the people.

He is the author of nine books, numerous editorials and is a frequently sought after expert for television relative to topics including flat tax, welfare reform and Social Security privatization.

He regularly briefs members of Congress on economic policy issues and frequently testifies before congressional committees. He is author/co-author of more than 50 published studies on such topics as health policy, tax reform and school choice.

2009 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award Recipients Announced

2009-10-08T14:00:00Z

The National Quality Forum (NQF) and The Joint Commission today announced the 2009 recipients of the annual John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards. Honorees were selected in all five award categories. This year's awards feature a new international category.

The honorees, by award category, are as follows:

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT

Gary S. Kaplan, M.D.- Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, Washington

Dr. Kaplan, a practicing physician, is credited for guiding Virginia Mason Medical Center through a transformation that explicitly placed the interests of the patient first. Introducing breakthrough changes derived from the Toyota Production System, Dr. Kaplan spearheaded the creation of the Virginia Mason Production System. The patient safety and quality achievements realized at Virginia Mason as a result of consistently applying these innovative methods has attracted the interest and attention of health care leaders nationally and internationally.

RESEARCH

Tejal Gandhi, M.D.- Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

Dr. Gandhi has been instrumental in increasing knowledge and awareness of safety issues in the outpatient setting and in designing improvement strategies for this setting, particularly through the use of information technology. Her groundbreaking work to better understand the epidemiology of a wide range of ambulatory safety concerns is responsible for drawing national attention to safety issues and potential prevention in this important patient care setting.

INNOVATION IN PATIENT SAFETY AND QUALITY AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL

Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA) Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality- Lansing, Michigan

The MHA Keystone Center used a quality improvement collaborative to focus on interventions to improve patient safety and prevent harm in intensive care units (ICU). Two of the interventions, eliminating central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) and the Comprehensive Unit-Based Safety Program (CUSP), have produced notable results in eliminating CLABSIs in Michigan ICUs. More than 1,800 lives have been saved, more than 140,700 excess hospital days avoided, and more than $271 million health care dollars saved in the five years since the interventions were first implemented.

INNOVATION IN PATIENT SAFETY AND QUALITY AT THE LOCAL LEVEL

Mercy Hospital Anderson- Cincinnati, Ohio

Mercy Hospital Anderson developed and implemented an automated Modified Early Warning System (MEWS), a simple scoring system that is applied to the physiological vital signs routinely measured by nurses. MEWS provides nurses with a tool to evaluate subtle signs that predict the patient's likelihood of deterioration, to increase calls to the organization's Rapid Response Team, and to decrease the incidence of Code Blues.

INTERNATIONAL

Noreen Zafar, M.D., F.R.C.O.G.- Lahore, Pakistan

Dr. Zafar's vision is to offer high quality gynecological care and empower women to become good decision makers regarding their own health and their family's health. Dr. Zafar has worked independently to promote wellness among girls and women, without government or any other support. She has overcome many social taboos in her quest and has established health awareness programs related to pre-cancer screening, teenage gynecological health, and reproductive health. Dr. Zafar has initiated nearly a dozen campaigns under the umbrella of the Women's Health Initiative such as "Say No to Osteoporosis," "Beat Menopause," "Prioritize Pink," "Folic Acid Campaign," "Women Matter," and "The Pakistan Group for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology" to improve girls and women's health.

"The Eisenberg Award shines a spotlight on the frontline work that is occurring worldwide to improve health care quality by making a difference in patient safety," says Mark R. Chassin, M.D., M.P.P., M.P.H., president, The Joint Commission. "These innovations and public commitments to safe, reliable care serve as an example for what can be achieved."

"This year's winners represent the best of what is possible in improving the safety and quality of health care," says Janet Corrigan, Ph.D., M.B.A., president and CEO, National Quality Forum. "They are at the forefront of their fields and have taken risks to improve health care by addressing the way care is delivered. They have carried on John Eisenberg's commitment to safety and quality and have truly improved health care."

This year's awards will be presented at NQF's Annual Policy Conference: Beyond Measure - The Quality Imperative in Healthcare Reform in National Harbor, Maryland, October 14-15. The December 2009 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safetywill feature the achievements of each of the award recipients.

The patient safety awards program, launched in 2002 by NQF and The Joint Commission, honors John M. Eisenberg, M.D., M.B.A., former administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Dr. Eisenberg was one of the founding leaders of NQF and sat on its Board of Directors. In his roles both as AHRQ administrator and chair of the federal government's Quality Inter-Agency Coordination Task Force, he was a passionate advocate for patient safety and health care quality and personally led AHRQ's grant program to support patient safety research.

Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission seeks to continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value. The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 16,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including nearly 9,000 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 6,200 other health care organizations that provide long term care, behavioral health care, laboratory and ambulatory care services. In addition, The Joint Commission also provides certification of more than 600 disease-specific care programs, primary stroke centers, and health care staffing services. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. Learn more about The Joint Commission at www.jointcommission.org.

The mission of the National Quality Forum is to improve the quality of American healthcare by setting national priorities and goals for performance improvement, endorsing national consensus standards for measuring and publicly reporting on performance, and promoting the attainment of national goals through education and outreach programs. NQF, a non-profit organization (qualityforum.org) with diverse stakeholders across the public and private health sectors, was established in 1999 and is based in Washington, D.C.

SOURCE The Joint Commission

Asian Medical Tourism to Cross US$5 Billion by 2012

2009-10-07T14:13:00Z

Medical tourism is emerging as one of the fastest growing markets in Asia, with the rising number of foreign tourists coming for their treatments into the region. Our report "Asian Medical Tourism Analysis (2008-2012)" has found that medical tourism market has recorded a reasonable growth of around 11% over 2007 to reach at US$ 3.8 Billion in 2008. One of the main reasons for the growth of the industry is the low cost of the treatments and the world-class services.

"The patients are ready to take up treatments in the countries like Thailand, India, and Singapore despite the financial crisis that eroded the purchasing power of the foreign tourists," said a research analyst at RNCOS.

Various countries that are the most sought after destinations for the medical tourists' arriving to Asia are - Malaysia, India, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines and South Korea. Thailand and Singapore are the leading destinations for medical tourism that together accounted for 64% of the total Asian medical tourism market in 2008.

These countries offer various complex treatments at affordable costs. The cost of some highly sophisticated treatments such as hip replacement, heart valve replacement is 8-10 times lower in India and Thailand than in the United States. Also, foreign tourists get their treatments like cardiac procedures done in the Asian countries like Thailand and India in a week or two, whereas it takes nearly a year to get treated in developed countries.

The future prospect of the medical tourism industry seems encouraging. The Asian countries will continue leveraging from their highly developed health infrastructure such as well-qualified medical professionals, internationally accredited healthcare institutions and the hot spot destinations. The Asian region, mainly comprising of India, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and South Korea is expected to receive 6.1 Million medical tourists by the end of 2012.

The report "Asian Medical Tourism Analysis (2008-2012)" provides a deep insight about the emerging medical tourism markets in Asia, the market trends responsible for the present performance of the industry and the future growth potential of the industry. It provides key information to clients looking ahead to venture into these markets as well as helps them to plan out strategies before going for an investment/partnership in the concerned markets.

For FREE SAMPLE of this report visit: www.rncos.com/Report/IM105.htm

Check DISCOUNTED REPORTS on: www.rncos.com

source:Highbeam reserach

Singapore’s healthcare system ready for upturn in medical tourism

2009-10-05T13:09:00Z

Singapore’s healthcare system is well positioned to capture the upturn in medical tourism when the region recovers from the economic downturn, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan told Parliament. The minister reported that private hospitals involved in medical tourism are seeing only marginal drops in revenue compared to last year.

He pointed out that despite having a competent healthcare system, with world-class facilities and a well-deserved reputation for high medical and ethical standards, efforts to expand the capacity and raise the capabilities of healthcare services are continuing. To meet future demand, the government has been releasing land for hospitals and medical centres. As the region recovers from recession, he expects medical tourism to increase as Singapore is well positioned to capture the growth. The minister stressed that Singaporeans do not suffer from competition from foreigners for medical services. Singapore receives about 400,000 medical tourists a year. The minister admitted that the earlier target of one million medical tourists by 2012 was unrealistic.

source: TreatmentAbroad