ETW Staff– Mumbai
Medical Travel Quality Alliance (MTQUA), promoting better quality and safety for medical tourists since 2009, has launched the first ever international Medical Tourism Certification for health and wellness providers and agencies around the world. With this new certification, medical tourism will become safer and better health care option as medical tourists can find certified hospitals, clinics and medical travel companies world wide that meet an international standard of quality in care and services.
For the first time, travellers seeking medical treatment anywhere in the world can find hospitals, clinics and medical travel companies that have been certified for the quality of the non-clinical care and services they offer to medical travellers. Medical tourists have more choices for treatment than ever as presently the number of hospitals, doctors and agencies around the world that market their services are growing.
Julie Munro, president, MTQUA, “Medical tourists are travelling to get better, not to get frustrated, frightened or cheated. They are not ordinary patients. They need extra care, services and consideration, and they need to be able to trust their hospital or agent to deliver these.”
Certification looks beyond the luxuries of five-star hotel services to review aspects of care including communications, ethics, pricing and cultural sensitivity that are critical in good care, but travellers cannot judge on their own. Munro said, “I’m very pleased with the response from the medical tourism industry. We have already certified hospitals, clinics and agents across Asia, in the Middle East and the United States.”
Medical tourism certification is awarded to a hospital, clinic or medical tourism agency that meets the international standard of quality in 10 areas that directly impact a medical tourist’s wellbeing and good results. MTQUA evaluators examine a provider’s website and internet marketing, communication procedures and protocols, privacy and security measures, multicultural sensitivity, international patient services, and other operations and business procedures that have been shown to affect the quality of treatment and care a medical tourist receives.
