A challenging entanglement: health care providers’ perspectives on caring for ill and injured tourists on Cozumel Island, Mexico

Abstract

Purpose: Despite established knowledge that tourists often fall ill or are injured abroad, little is known about their treatment. The intent of this study was to explore health care professionals’ treatment provision experiences on Cozumel Island, Mexico. Methods: 13 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with professionals across a number of health care vocations on Cozumel Island. Interviews were transcribed and thematically analysed to determine common challenges faced in the provision of treatment for transnational tourists. Results: Three thematic challenges emerged from the data: human and physical resource deficiencies, medical (mis)perceptions held by patients and complexities surrounding remuneration of care. Health care providers employ unique strategies to mitigate these challenges. Conclusion: Although many of these challenges exist within other touristic and peripheral spaces, we suggest that the challenges experienced by Cozumel Island’s health care professionals, and their mitigation strategies, exist as part of a complex entanglement between the island’s health care sector and its dominant tourism landscape. We call on tangential tourism services to take a larger role in ensuring the ease of access to, and provision of quality health care services for tourists on Cozumel Island.

Opportunities and challenges in providing health care for International Retirement Migrants: a qualitative case study of Canadians travelling to Yuma, Arizona

“…For example, research on medical tourism has shown that patients may not understand differences in the roles that health workers in destination hospitals take on relative to what they are familiar with in their home systems, which can create confusion [40,41]. Further to this, in the context of caring for ill and injured vacationers, interviews with health care providers in a popular vacation destination in Mexico point to how misunderstandings based on stereotypes regarding practice competency can affect patients' decisions regarding receiving treatment for injuries sustained on holiday while abroad [42].…”

“…Exploring such questions has the potential to deepen the insights gleaned in the current study. Second, given the sizeable number of Canadians who participate in international retirement migration and the country's rapidly aging population [42], it is an opportune time to explore models and mechanisms for enhancing care continuity for those who participate in this transnational practice. Doing so has the potential to respond to some of the challenges identified by the focus group participants.…”