Medical Travel Hotels

International medical travel isn't really happening much these days and it may not return to what it once was for years. For a hotel that was opened with the intention to accommodate medical travel patients from afar, new creative ways to use brand touch points to create medical travel experiences must be developed for the hotels where medical travel patients land, rest and spend time recuperating until they return home.

Unlike the medical travel domestic counterparts here in the USA, the medical travel programs operating at international destinations often boast guest stays of 4x to 7x longer than transient tourists bookings. Here in the USA, our medical travel program, now extended an additional day for COVID PCR testing on arrival is generally no more than 3 business days prior to surgery and three business days after surgery before they return home.

For hotels that are inactive partners of their medical counterparts and destinations in more than 100 countries, cultural diplomacy is a key component of a medical traveler's experience. The art, culture, gastronomy, crafts, and other offerings that tie the uniqueness of the guest experience at a treatment destination help to distinguish the experience from "just another surgery procedure".

"Nation Branding" is a thing in medical travel and health tourism

Nation branding attempts to package an experience of a health consultation, treatment or pharmacy tourism purchasing experience into a comprehensive and targeted narrative that bundles a tag line, the font, imagery, and medical prowess into a story with multiple angles about the surgeon, the nursing care, the quality and safety, the price advantages, the bricks and mortar health facility, the technologies, the hotel comfort, location, and ambiance, the airport arrival and departure experience, and time spent on other than medical agenda activities.

Hotels that hold themselves out for medical travel stays must be prepared to meet rigorous demands that exceed those of general tourism guests for longer lengths of stay

I was just in the break room of our ambulatory surgery facility chatting with the recovery room nurses over a slice of pizza. The conversation drifted over to aseptic practices and hotels for our joint replacement surgery cases. When I was an OR nurse the word "fanatic" was the only fitting and accurate word that could describe my approach to aseptic technique, especially in joint replacement and orthopedic surgery. And in medical tourism, I am again a fanatic about travel arrangements, seat selections, and hotels - especially for joint replacement cases. I want the hotel room as close to "neutropenic" conditions as possible.

That term means steps you can take to prevent infections if you have moderate to severe neutropenia - or must make adjustments to avoid hotel acquired infections on a fresh joint replacement surgery. I seek out accommodations that have no fresh flowers or live plants, no carpeting, and cleanliness. Below, the flowers and plants you see are all silk.

Above: Maria Todd's benchmark medical tourism accommodation.

I want as little communication with lobbies, strangers, and a way to cook a meal in a serviced apartment as opposed to planning to eat in restaurants. I want trip hazards minimized, I want to be sure electrical outlets are located in the best places to avoid extension cords for CPAPs, laptops, and I want appropriate lighting and natural light as possible, and sturdy seating that is appropriate for a shoulder patient or a knee or hip patient to get up safely without having a chair slide, glide, or give way under the patient's weight.

I want access to fresh water that is potable from the sink and doesn't taste nasty. I want patios or balconies that are safe for a patient on medication but also pleasant to sit outside and dine al fresco with a view.

I seek properties that have ample security, CCTV to help discover a patient in distress in a hallway or who has fallen, one that has alternative supplies and amenities in the event that the patient or companion traveler is allergic to what they normally offer or how they launder the sheets and towels. I want HEPA-filtered room air. I seek out properties where there is staff on duty around the clock that speaks the language of the patient. I want to know that fire, EMS and police services are nearby. I rigorously examine what's available if there's an order to shelter-in-place for some reason. I also rigorously inspect how a post-operative patient will be evacuated and rescued in the event an evacuation is necessary for any reason.

The time is now for hotels that would like to be ready to invite medical travel guests to prepare to host them when travel resumes. How you prepare now and possibly rebrand your medical travel product depends on the type of cases your health facilities will attract. You don't need to accommodate all types of surgery.

The key here is to know your customer, their needs, preferences, culture back home, languages spoken, expectations, and anticipate that they could be helpless, nauseous, in pain, lonely, apprehensive, and unwell. Sightseeing packages may be the least of their concern - despite what many armchair medical tourism experts and novice medical tourism facilitators (and their certifiers) may blog about.

If you'd like to learn more about how to prepare to host medical travel patients at your hotel or resort or serviced apartment operation, call me. We can discuss what you offer now and fill any gaps. Beyond that, you'll need a way to connect with the market so that you can develop that line of business with a minimum expense and maximum revenue opportunity. If you are currently designing an accommodation that is intended for use by medical travel patients, I can help you avoid novice mistakes your designers may not account for in their layouts, FFE choices, wall and floor coverings. I can also work with operations managers, desk, back of the house, and marketing/business development specialists to get them on the course to success and safety.

To be ready for medical travel patients doesn't mean to be a certain number of stars on a rating system. For one thing, the star ratings are not specific to medical travel. To make it work, you need a service element that is tailored around the surgical and other medical cases you'll attract. Accreditation schemes being sold in the market are not necessary or universally recognized - not by anybody. In fact, some are notoriously avoided or silently scoffed as opportunistic. Don't waste your cash on that.

By making your medical travel accommodations a team partner in the health traveler experience for your destination, you'll make their experience more tangible, more memorable, more sensory, and create a deeper emotional bond between the guest and the destination. A new, emerging strategy for employers and consumers engaging in health travel and medical tourism will be important when choices are made for accommodations as travel returns post-pandemic.

Get in touch:

Maria K Todd PhD MHA, is the director of business development at St George Surgical Center and a consultant, speaker, author, and expert in health travel program design and logistics with more than 40 years of hands on experience in the business of medical tourism.

She can be reached at +1.435.767.7977 or via messages through her website at mariatodd.com. Maria is the author of The Handbook of Medical Tourism Program Development and the Medical Tourism Facilitator's Handbook, (on medical travel case management protocols and practices) both internationally published by imprints of Informa Life Sciences.