Medical Tourism

Posted by Greg

February 29, 2008

The Toronto Star, July 2007

They say a few weeks in the tropics does wonders for a person’s constitution - most come back with a slight increase in energy, a healthy tan and a few less wrinkles. But if your coworker comes back from vacation with a new head of hair, a larger bust line or devoid of that pesky heart condition that made them wheeze on the way to the water cooler, they’ve most likely taken advantage of what is emerging as a booming global trend - medical tourism (MT).

Ten years ago, going overseas specifically for medical care was nearly unheard of; last year, over 1.3 million patients were treated in Asia, a rate that continues to grow at around 30% per year. There are several reasons why MT is such an attractive alternative, but cost is undoubtedly at the fore - generally about one-tenth of what you’d pay at home. When you’re on the wrong end of a $150,000 heart bypass, that’s a lot of money to be saved.

Popular media likes to spin MT as essentially a quick surgery followed by a week on a beach sipping Mai-Tai’s, which is a bit more romantic than the reality. “Actually,” says Curtis Schroeder, Group CEO of Bumrungrad International, “it’s much less glamorous. You can’t actually play in the sand or go scuba diving, for obvious medical reasons, but most of our patients still take full advantage of the air-con shopping malls, golf courses, food and culture.”

Schroeder should know. Bangkok’s Bumrungrad Hospital has been a press darling of late, capturing headlines in health, tourism and news publications around the world, with 60 Minutes calling it the ‘number one international hospital in the world’. It’s a reputation that the hospital deserves.

“We were the first hospital in the world to be ISO certified to European standards, which we then followed with accreditation under new Thai governmental regulations based on Canadian healthcare standards,” Schroeder explains. “Lastly, we were certified by the Joint Commission, which is responsible for accrediting every hospital in the US.” Despite the fact that many things in Asia get done under the table, it was not so in this case. “Let me tell you,” laughs Schroeder, “it was exhausting and very thorough. They had people here for a week interviewing patients, doctors, and staff, and going over every square inch of the place. The medical community was shocked that a Thai hospital was the first to get their certification.”

Several hospitals have since followed suit, but Bumrungrad works hard to remain at the fore, with over 20 offices around the globe. It serves over one million patients every year, 8,000 of which come from Canada.

Bumrungrad’s reputation is well-known locally as well. When Richie Moore, an expat living in Bangkok, was in a motorcycle accident with a tanker truck last year, he knew he had to head to Bumrungrad. “I broke my right elbow, forearm, hip, and shattered my pelvis in 6 places, landing about 15 meters from my bike. I demanded that they take me to Bumrungrad, where my pain and anxiety quickly faded.” The care he received there sticks with him today. “I had four doctors and a fantastic orthopaedic surgeon,” he says. “I was on my back for 3 weeks and finally went home after I learned to sit, stand and begin to walk with a modified set of crutches. Total bill after 25 days in a personal room, 2 surgeries and physical therapy was $16,000 Canadian”

But if the shiny MT brochures and flashing internet ads do promise sun, sand and surgery, can you trust them? What makes one hospital better than another? What can you do if something goes wrong? One man who is trying to help answer these questions is Austin Brentley, a Bangkok-based American who has opened www.healthmedicaltourism.org, a website that aims to offer concise, no-nonsense advice for those seeking medical care overseas. “We want to be the Google of the medical tourism market,” he says.

Brentley, a Harvard grad and world traveler several times over, found the impetus for his site when he went under the knife in Thailand. “I had lumbar surgery last fall and was so impressed with the care I received that I started to do some research. I found there was an unmet demand for a central repository of solid data, which was scattered and hard to find,” he explains over lunch at a bustling outdoor cafe in Bangkok. “Our job is to gather all of this information together so users can decide weather MT is right for them.”

Besides cost, some of the factors that give Asian MT a bit more polish are the hospitality inherent to Asian cultures, and short wait times. “In my case, it was 5 days between my first visit and my surgery,” marvels Brentley. “That’s unheard of in most western countries.” Schroeder echoes this comment. “In the UK or North America, the average waiting time to see an oncologist is 6 months after you’ve been diagnosed with cancer. After hearing that, does it matter if it’s free? No, I have a lump in my throat and I need to have it looked at. These are often life-and-death decisions.”

It’s a trend that governments on both sides are trying to harness as well. In Asia, the average tourist spends about CDN$152 per day, while a medical tourist spends about CDN$383 a day, a huge potential market for any country. In the US, several of South Carolina’s massive BlueCross insurers have teamed up to offer Bumrungrad and other Asian hospitals as options to its 1.3 million members. Even corporations are beginning to take note. “At a recent medical seminar I spoke at, some of the most interested people I talked to represented huge multinational US companies,” says Schroeder.

Clearly, the potential for the MT market is massive. As the huge and economically vital Baby Boomer generation slowly but surely continues to age, interest remains high. After the aforementioned 60 Minutes program, Bumrungrad received over 13,000 emails requesting more information. Brentley adds, “When the Google ranking for HealthMedicalTourism.org rose to number 1 or 2 for several days, we had to immediately upgrade our server to handle the extra traffic. It caused an incredible spike in viewers.”

Naturally, traveling around the world for an operation continues to cause hesitation in many. “It is a large leap of faith for anyone to consider overseas healthcare,” says Schroeder. “But what many people find is that the service and care are arguably better than any you can get back home.” He laughs again when he says, “We actually have a lot more trouble keeping our Thai patients happy than we do with our expat patients.”

With his projection that MT numbers could easily quintuple over the next five years, Schroeder and his staff will have their hands full. But it seems to be a challenge that they not only look forward to, but one they can surely deal with as well.

Newspapers