Benchmarking An International Journal · 2018 · 45 citations · 37 references
ManagementTourism ManagementDestination ManagementHospital AdministrationTourismDestination CompetitivenessMedical TourismTourism DemandTourism Destination ManagementTourism DevelopmentTourism ImpactsInterpretive Structural ModelingSystematic Literature ReviewTourism Destination ChoiceTourism Destination PerformanceTourism Market Structure
Medical tourism promotes cross‑border patient and professional movement and trade, yet India’s sector faces ethical, legal, and market challenges amid evolving service standards. The study aims to evaluate key factors that could make India an affordable medical tourism destination. The authors reviewed literature, surveyed international patients, and applied interpretive structural modeling to rank and analyze interrelated factors influencing Indian medical tourism. The ISM model identifies cost, facilitation, care, hospital infrastructure, clinical excellence, and staff competence as top‑level determinants for India’s affordability in medical tourism. The research offers a comprehensive model based on original data from international patients, providing insights for hospitals and policymakers to improve medical tourism processes.
Purpose Medical tourism encourages the traveling of patients, expert healthcare professionals and promotes cross-border trade in healthcare services. The Indian medical tourism sector is facing new challenges as well as certain ethical and legal issues because of continuous market changes and patient’s requirements while at the same time advancements in current health services have also been observed. It is therefore very important to understand and address the issues of the medical tourists. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the important factors which can make India an affordable medical tourism destination. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the factors influencing Indian medical tourism sector have been explored by conducting literature review, they are ranked according to the results of a questionnaire-based survey and further analyzed by using the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach. The mutual relationships between these factors were identified to develop an ISM model so as to find out the important factors which can make India an affordable place for medical tourism. Findings The results of the survey and the model show that cost of medical procedures, facilitation, and care, the infrastructure of Indian hospitals, clinical excellence and the competence of doctors and staff are the top level factors. Practical implications It is very important to address the concerns of the patients coming to a developing country like India for availing medical services. This research has evaluated the important factors which can make India an affordable medical tourism destination. Originality/value This research assesses the effects of globalization on delivery of healthcare services in India by conducting critical analysis of the medical tourism industry by collecting original data from the international patients coming to India for different types of medical procedures so that a comprehensive model can be prepared which will help the hospitals and policymakers to improve the processes related to medical tourism.
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