chapter 6 - Malaysia Productivity Corporation ( MPC)

PRODUCTIVITY PERFORMANCE OF THE SERVICES SECTOR
Malaysia has emerged as the most popular
medical tourism destination in the ASEAN region,
competing with Thailand and Singapore. It was
reported that the biggest pull factors of the
Malaysian medical tourism industry are good
health infrastructures, Government support
through promotional programmes as well as the
availability of skilled medical professionals. Cost
comparison among different countries for surgical
procedures including heart bypass had revealed
that Malaysia has the lowest and thus the most
competitive cost which serves as another key
factor to the bullish demand for health tourism in
this country. A Muslim country status also added
to Malaysia’s attractiveness score especially among
health tourists from Muslim countries.
Innovation and Best Practices
Private healthcare providers are the major
contributors to the provision of high quality
healthcare services. The innovation in healthcare
services focuses mainly towards expanding the
capacity of the services involving both physical,
human capital and network capacities as well as
enhancing the quality of the service.
Continuous upgrading and expanding the number
of health institutions are the strategies adopted by
private healthcare providers to meet the increasing
demand for better healthcare services as well
as to attract more health tourists. This includes
building hospitals with international standards and
providing cutting edge technologies, highly trained
consultants and staffs as well as hotel facilities.
Investment in state-of-the-art medical technologies
contributed to the enhancement of productivity.
The use of electronic health record contributed to
faster and more accurate database access on the
medical records. The effort to improve the quality
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of healthcare services is also achieved through
collaboration in research and development. The
healthcare information system, medical equipment
as well as medical procedures are continually being
enhanced through research collaborations with
private research and development institutions as
well as local universities.
Human capital enhancement is achieved through
attaining and producing the best talent. The
healthcare providers are committed to continuously
improving the quality of healthcare services
by acquiring medical consultants from various
disciplines in order to add to the variety of services
to their customers. At the same time, continuous
training and enhancement programmes are
also provided to empower the existing staffs
with knowledge on correct procedures as well
as producing talented employees. Outside the
training programmes, the employees are exposed
to seminars and conferences to get them involved
in discussions with peers as well as other experts to
benefit from knowledge spillovers.
Partnership with major airlines and tourism
agencies is a wise step taken by healthcare
providers to offer better health tourism packages.
Partnership with the major airlines offering an
all-inclusive package for medical travellers which
covers the cost of travelling, hotel accommodation,
and medical screening at any local medical
centre offering comprehensive health screening
packages for heart diseases, stroke and cancer
had increased the attractiveness of Malaysia as
health tourism destination. Besides, many of the
healthcare providers have set up their international
patient center to cater to the needs of international
patients. Language may no longer be a barrier
anymore to the health tourists as most of the