US Medical Tourism in India
The fear of becoming ill in
a foreign country is a common nightmare among international travelers.
Yet, for a great many travelers – known as medical tourists,
the appeal of combining affordable medical care, attentive room service
and an exotic location is exactly what leads them to pack their
suitcases and board a plane.
High Quality Health Care in a Foreign Country
Marvin Cetron, founder and
president of Forecasting International, published author and tourism
expert states that the hospitals and clinics that cater to the tourist
market often are among the best in the world and many are staffed by
physicians trained at major medical centers in the United States and
Europe.
These hospitals can boast
about their results. In fact, Escorts Heart Institute and Research
Center in Delhi and Faridabad, India provides more than 14,000 heart
surgeries each year with the patient death rate during surgery as low
as .8 percent – less than half that of most of the major
hospitals in the United States.
India to be Top Choice for USA Medical Tourists
In addition, more and more
of the hospitals in India are receiving the US Joint Commission
International accreditation. As a result, India has positioned itself
to be the first choice among USA medical tourists seeking necessary
complex medical procedures.
The excellent facilities in
India provide USA medical tourists with treatment for open-heart
surgery, pediatric heart surgery, hip and knee replacement, cosmetic
surgery, dentistry, bone marrow transplants and cancer therapy. In
addition, nearly all of the clinics in India are equipped with the
latest electronic and medical diagnostic equipment.
India’s Standard of Medical Excellence
India, unlike many of its
competitors in the medical tourism industry, is technologically
sophisticated and has the infrastructure necessary to provide high
quality medical treatment. In addition, India requires that its
pharmaceuticals meet the stringent requirements of the US Food and Drug
Administration.
Cetron notes that US
medical tourists receive treatment in India that is up to American
standards, and that some Indian medical centers provide services not
commonly found in other medical settings. For example, hip surgery
patients in India may choose a hip resurfacing procedure instead, in
which damaged bone is removed and replaced with chrome alloy. This type
of operation is less costly and causes less post-operative trauma than
the traditional replacement procedure performed in the United States.
Trends Point to Growth for Medical Tourism
By 2015 the Baby Boomer
generation, which numbers more than 220 million people worldwide, is
expected to begin its final decline and this is a trend that all but
guarantees that the medical tourism industry will continue to grow.
In the United States,
medical tourism will be especially attractive to the approximately 43
million people without health insurance and the 120 million without
dental coverage. Although these numbers are astounding, they are
expected to increase in the coming years.
Europe’s Medical Tourists
Americans are not the only
ones seeking elective and necessary medical treatments abroad. Even
though officials within the EU stress that “medical tourism
should not be actively encouraged”, many Europeans are taking
advantage of the benefits of the medical tourism industry by receiving
treatment in India and elsewhere.
Patients in Britain
especially, where the health care system is so bogged down that there
are long waiting lists for major surgery, are eager to take advantage
of the services they can receive in India and other countries within
one day of their arrival.
Whether seeking to reduce
costs or to increase choices, medical tourists have many good reasons
to search for care beyond the United States.
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