Qualitative Examination of Health Tourism and Its Challenges

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Research and Education Department, Razavi Hospital, Mashhad, Iran

2 Razavi Cancer Research Center, Razavi Hospital, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: Health tourism refers to travel for the use of services that improve or promote the physical or psychological health of an individual in a location apart from their place of residence lasting over 24 hours. Health tourism provides a sizeable share of revenues derived from the health sector in some countries. The high potential for health tourism in Iran, especially in the city of Mashhad, the need to establish a groundwork for health tourism in Iran that cannot be overemphasized. Because the transfer of knowledge and theoretical and practical synthesis are underlying concerns, this study examined how health tourism knowledge is transferred and applied from the perspective of health tourism officials and academics.
Methods: This study adopted a qualitative approach based on grounded theory. Data collection was conducted through purposeful sampling using in-depth and semi-structured individual interviews. The conversations were recorded and then transcribed verbatim and finally analyzed using Strauss and Corbin’s coding paradigm and constant comparative analysis.
Results: The results of interviews with 16 participants from among hospital managers, university professors and tourism and health insurance managers yielded 100 initial codes, out of which 60 conceptual labels or preliminary codes for broader concepts were extracted after repeated modification to reach conceptual density.
Conclusion: Three categories having several subcategories were derived from the responses of participants: the challenges and benefits of health tourism, human interaction and communication and the impact of international standards.

Keywords


  1. Turner LG. Quality in health care and globalization of health services: accreditation and regulatory oversight of medical tourism companies. Int J Qual Health Care. 2011;23(1):1-7. doi:10.1093/ intqhc/mzq078.
  2. Johnston R, Crooks VA, Snyder J, Kingsbury P. What is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries? A scoping review. Int J Equity Health. 2010;9:24. doi:10.1186/1475-9276-9-24.
  3. Izadi M, Ayoobian A, Nasiri T, Joneidi N, Fazel M, Hosseinpourfard M. Situation of health tourism in Iran opportunity or threat. J Mil Med. 2012;14(2):69-75.
  4. Ayoubian A, Tourani S, Dehaghi ZH. Medical tourism attraction of Tehran hospitals. Int J Travel Med Glob Health. 2014;1(2):95-98.
  5. Morovati Sharifabadi A, Asadian Ardakani F. A model for health tourism development using fuzzy TOPSIS and interpretive structural modeling in Yazd province. Journal of Health Administration. 2014;17(55):73-88.
  6. Izadi M, Saadat SH, Ayoubian A, Dehaghi ZH, Karbasi MR, Jalali AR. Health tourism in Iran; identifying obstacles for development of this industry. Int J Travel Med Glob Health. 2014;1(2):89-94.
  7. Vrkljan S, Hendija Z. Business performance of health tourism service providers in the republic of Croatia. Acta Clin Croat. 2016;55(1):79-85.
  8. Lunt N, Horsfall D, Hanefeld J. Medical tourism: A snapshot of evidence on treatment abroad. Maturitas. 2016;88:37-44. doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2016.03.001.
  9. Lee C, Spisto M. Medical tourism, the future of health services. Paper presented at: 12th international Conference on ISO2007.
  10. Lee HK, Fernando Y. The antecedents and outcomes of the medical tourism supply chain. Tourism Manag. 2015;46:148-157. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2014.06.014.
  11. Goodarzi M, Taghvaei M, Zangiabadi A. Factor Analysis of Effective Factors on the Improvement of Medical Tourism in Shiraz Megalopolis. Environmental Management and Sustainable Development. 2014;3(1):138. doi:10.5296/emsd.v3i1.4876.
  12. Izadi M, Joneidi N, Ranjbar R, Ayoobian A. Health tourism in Iran: Competitive advantage factor. Tehran; 2012.
  13. Mueller H, Kaufmann EL. Wellness tourism: Market analysis of a special health tourism segment and implications for the hotel industry. Journal of Vacation Marketing. 2001;7(1):5-17. doi:10.1177/135676670100700101.
  14. McGuire MF. International accreditation of ambulatory surgical centers and medical tourism. Clin Plast Surg. 2013;40(3):493-498. doi:10.1016/j.cps.2013.04.013.
  15. Mason A, Wright KB. Framing medical tourism: An examination of appeal, risk, convalescence, accreditation, and interactivity in medical tourism web sites. J Health Commun. 2011;16(2):163-177. doi:10.1080/10810730.2010.535105.
  16. Connell J. Contemporary medical tourism: Conceptualisation, culture and commodification. Tourism Manag. 2013;34:1-13. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2012.05.009.
  17. Mojarradi Z, Amouzegar S, Beikzadeh S, Milani M, Izanloo A, Khoramehr G. Health Tourism Inclined Toward Obtaining Accreditation. Razavi Int J Med. 2014;2(4):e20047. doi:10.5812/rijm.20047.