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MEDICAL TOURISM
doctors and then a small few that are not so good. It pretty much
comes down to doing the research and using common sense. In Costa
Rica, all practicing medical professionals must be registered with the
“Colegio de Médicos” (the College of Physicians) www.medicos.sa.cr,
a good place to start your research.
To its credit, Costa Rica also has a long tradition of offering high
quality medical care to all it citizens through a national public healthcare
system. Besides the public health system, the country has a strong
private health system with hospitals and clinics of great prestige and
reputation.
FACTS TO CONSIDER:
• The World Health Organization’s most recent survey of healthcare
systems published in the World Health Report 2000, ranks Costa
Rica’s health system among the top three in Latin America ahead of
154 other countries including the United States, New Zealand and
Thailand
• In 2004, Costa Rica’s infant mortality rate was nearly as low as
the United States (9.25 deaths for every 1000 born live in Costa Rica,
against 6.5 deaths for every 1000 born live in the United States). This
is especially relevant considering that the United States has more
neonatologists and neonatal intensive care beds per person than
Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom (not to mention Costa
Rica) and a per capita income nine times more than that of Costa Rica.
• According to the World Bank, Costa Rica has the highest life
expectancy in all of Latin America. With 78.7 years of life expectancy
at birth, Costa Rica equals Canada, and beats the United States life
expectancy by one year.
Additionally, many of the country’s doctors have trained in the United
States or Europe and a significant percentage speak English or another
second language.
THE FUTURE
Traditionally in Central and South America (as well as many other
parts of the world), most medical services have been marketed abroad
through individual doctors and small clinics. Recently, however, larger
hospitals have begun to actively solicit foreign patients. A case in point
is Thailand, which boasts several hospitals that have successfully
marketed their services to an international clientele.
In Costa Rica, the Hospital Clinica Biblica has taken a leading role in
positioning itself as the region’s premier medical institution for
international patients. This privately owned, non-profit institution
boasts one of Costa Rica’s most technologically advanced medical
facilities and will soon be the region’s first JCI accredited hospital. The
JCI accreditation is a world-renown seal of approval that indicates a
hospital meets high performance standards comparable to hospitals in
the United States and Europe.
Founded in 1927 by North American protestant missionaries, Hospital
22 DECEMBER 2007
As Patient Coordinator for Hospital Clinica Biblica
International Department in Costa Rica, Bill Cook oversees
operations and customer relationship management
initiatives aimed at increasing customer loyalty and
satisfaction. Bill also overseas web content development
and marketing strategy for Medical Tours Costa Rica, a
locally based medical tourism operator. Bill can be reached
at www.hospitalbiblicamedicaltourism.com.
Clinica Biblica has a long tradition of catering to resident aliens and more
recently to medical tourists. It recently opened an international department
and is considering dedicating an entire hospital wing solely for the use of
international patients. Presently over fifteen percent of its patients are
foreigners and this is only expected to increase.
It is initiatives such as these and others like it that bode well for Costa
Rica’s incursion into this exploding market. With no end in sight to the U.S.
healthcare crises, aging baby boomers and the number of uninsured continuing
to grow, the road ahead looks promising as this country reinvents itself
from solely a top ecotourism destination to a leading player in the global
healthcare arena.
References
1 Milstein and M. Smith, “America’s New
Refugees-Seeking Affordable Surgery
Offshore,” New England Journal of Medicine
2006; 355(16): 1637–1640
2 ICT: Llegadas de turistas internacionales
por LA VIA AEREA 2001-2006