“Ensure that you are well aware of the risks you are taking…”: actions and activities medical tourists’ informal caregivers can undertake to protect their health and safety

Abstract

BackgroundWhen seeking care at international hospitals and clinics, medical tourists are often accompanied by family members, friends, or other caregivers. Such caregiver-companions assume a variety of roles and responsibilities and typically offer physical assistance, provide emotional support, and aid in decision-making and record keeping as medical tourists navigate unfamiliar environments. While traveling abroad, medical tourists’ caregiver-companions can find themselves confronted with challenging communication barriers, financial pressures, emotional strain, and unsafe environments.MethodsTo better understand what actions and activities medical tourists’ informal caregivers can undertake to protect their health and safety, 20 interviews were conducted with Canadians who had experienced accompanying a medical tourist to an international health care facility for surgery. Interview transcripts were subsequently used to identify inductive and deductive themes central to the advice research participants offered to prospective caregiver-companions.ResultsAdvice offered to future caregiver-companions spanned the following actions and activities to protect health and safety: become an informed health care consumer; assess and avoid exposure to identifiable risks; anticipate the care needs of medical tourists and thereby attempt to guard against caregiver burden; become familiar with important logistics related to travel and anticipated recovery timelines; and take practical measures to protect one’s own health.ConclusionGiven that a key feature of public health is to use research findings to develop interventions and policies intended to promote health and reduce risks to individuals and populations, the paper draws upon major points of advice offered by study participants to take the first steps toward the development of an informational intervention designed specifically for the health and safety needs of medical tourists’ caregiver companions. While additional research is required to finalize the content and form of such an intervention, this study provides insight into what practical advice former caregiver-companions state should be shared with individuals considering assuming these roles and responsibilities in the future. In addition, this research draws attention to the importance of ensuring that such an intervention is web-based and readily accessible by prospective caregiver-companions.

Perceived Risks, Travel Constraints, and Destination Perception: A Study on Sub-Saharan African Medical Travellers

“…In medical travel, travellers from the low and middle income countries are generally perceived as being more vulnerable to different kind of risks at the destination due to lack of knowledge, fewer resources, and prejudices in the local population about them [37,38]. In this study, perception of risks was confined to risks faced by the medical travellers at the destination as pre and post-procedure risks of medical travellers from the high-income countries [39,40]. After a thorough review of the literature, the study categorised the perceived risks faced by medical travellers during their visit as physical-health, service quality, and destination risk.…”

“…Medical travellers can face the risk of contracting severe blood-borne infections such as HIV, hepatitis, etc. due to improper screening and storage of blood [40]. The health risk for the medical travellers receiving organ transplant is even higher due to the ignorance of standard protocol in donor selection at many destination countries [41].…”

“…Due to this, most hospitals providing services to medical travellers emphasise obtaining accreditation from international bodies such as Joint Commission International (JCI). However, there were many cases when medical travellers faced difficult times due to negligence in the quality of services provided such as unwanted procedures, inflated the cost, and prolonged stay in the hospitals [3,40,42]. Therefore, it can be hypothesised that:…”

The north-south policy divide in transnational healthcare: a comparative review of policy research on medical tourism in source and destination countries

“…Yet, empirical research on their systemic drivers and effects is scarce. The objectives of most research are exploratory or descriptive, and focused on ethical and medico-legal issues arising from outbound medical tourism [30][31][32][33][34], contradictions between intent and policy [35,36], and operational challenges [37][38][39]. This points to the relative nascency of policy research on Canadian medical tourism.…”

Sustainable Medical Tourism: Conceptual Framework

“…• Building and applying a system of secure processing of medical e-documentation, in accordance with current legislation. • Training and protection of patient coordinators (including insurance) against the burdens associated with personalized patient service (Crooks et al 2017). • Marketing activities based on the creation of a transparent website where potential patients will have better access to information necessary for making informed decisions about the treatment process, e.g., membership in prestigious associations, experience, and description of medical procedures usedpain-free treatment (Turner 2012 Travel stages Tasks Details Travel planning b : booking the appropriate means of transport (considering the restrictions after the procedure), booking the accommodation Set a date for the planned medical procedure Prepare travel-related documents (passport, visa, tickets) for the patient and the person/persons accompanying him/her Use the help of a medical facility in the organization and service of the medical tourism movement respecting environmental justice through, inter alia, proper disposal and treatment of medical waste (Machnik and Lubowiecki-Vikuk 2019).…”