My dog has a dog license, I have a driver’s license and am certified in CPR by the Red Cross and my doctor has a medical license, he specializes in cardiology.  The hospital I go to for tests is accredited by The Joint Commission and specializes in open heart surgery and orthopedics.

Today, we go to specialists. My auto technician is certified to work on my car; you want that for fast cars! But I remember when I was young we just took the family car to the gas station down the street and had the town’s mechanic “Red” take a look at it and fix it.  It seems more and more services are becoming specialized and certified, why?  Well it’s because technology and services are being designed to cater to our specific needs and wants and those needs require special people with special talents.

Now we go see the back specialist, not just the doctor, and yes there are certified specialists available for every part of the human body.  These are great times we live in.

So why do you offer international patient services at your hospital, and your not certified?

Certification tells everyone, from consumers, insurance companies, employers, benefits directors and facilitators that you are the best, you’ve made the extra effort to go through a rigorous process of training, providing documentation, making sure you have the best practices, processes and policies in place to ensure the best patient outcome and shout to the world that you are Certified!

Hotels strive for a 5 Star rating, and restaurants want an A rating, and guess what? That’s were we want to stay and eat.  It makes perfect sense, going to the right people who are trained and certified to provide the best care and service. In today’s competitive healthcare market, people expect more, and should be able to easily determine where those services can be obtained and know that they are working with the right people.

Businesses proudly display their certification, licenses and awards, why? Because they want you to know it and tell your family and friends, and when you get great service, you tell everyone about it.

So where is your sign? What’s your specialty and where is your certification? Luckily, I happen to know someone who can help your International Patient Services department become certified, gain more international patients, and attract more employers and benefits directors all while providing the best care and increasing your visibility and reputation.

I have to go walk my dog now, but feel free to contact me, and I’ll be happy to get you their phone number.

Mark J. Swirsky

Medical Tourism Association

Director Certification programs -

What makes a great International Patient Services Department (IPS)? How do you measure up to other hospitals in your country, region or even globally? How do you know what your competition is doing and what makes your IPS department better? What do you use to measure your success or lack of success?

As medical tourism grows, an IPS Department must make sure they are doing all they can to compete in the growing medical tourism market while increasing international patient flow and guarantying patients have a outstanding experience with positive outcomes. Implementing best practices are great, but how are your practices better?

Many great international patient service departments have lost this battle, because they never changed, and rested on their laurels. Have you gone over your procedures and made sure you are providing your patients the best experience in all the phases and nuances of treating international patients? When did you last ask, how can we improve?

A great way of measuring your success is providing every international patient with a survey regarding their stay. Making sure they all complete the survey may be a difficult task, so maybe you can provide a small gift for their time and thoughts. How much is a nice cup of coffee? Not much, but it let’s your patient know you value their opinion. Do you know how many of your patients come back for additional treatment? Maybe this year they did the right knee, but will they come back for the left knee when it requires surgery? Have you sent your past international patients a birthday or a thank you card from all the staff, with real signatures? It’s these little things that patients appreciate and keep them engaged.

As the cost and availability for healthcare becomes more difficult to obtain, insurance companies will look for Certified IPS departments in providing better healthcare to their clients in addition to reasonable and transparent rates. They will need to know that your International Patient Services Department has gone the extra mile in raising your standards and services.

Certification of International Patient Services Departments has become a valuable commodity. More hospitals are beginning to understand the need to stand above their competition and have the ability to not only to shout it to the world! But prove it to their patients by providing a great experience. Just as JCI has become a standard in hospital quality and standards, so has International Patient Services Certification or IPSC™.

IPSC™ provides a great deal of value not only to the hospitals IPS Departments, but to their patients, by working with procedures and processes that have been proven, tested and developed by the Medical Tourism Industry, not just made up in some boardroom.

When was the last time you made a call to your competitor’s hospital to see how quick they are to respond to your call or e-mail? How does their website look? Is it in multiple languages? Are there hundreds of testimonials? And when was the last time you called your own hospitals IPS department to see how they respond to your inquire?

Sometimes taking a good hard look at ourselves and our competition, helps us to better improve ourselves while helping our patients.

Now that your hospital and staff have gone through the rigorous paces to obtain JCI, ISQua or ISO accreditation you may ask yourself what’s next.  In the competitive world of medical tourism, many hospitals need to get the word out regarding their certification. But in a market where the majority of hospitals all carry the same accreditations, it will be the hospital that seeks specialized certification for their international patient services department that will stand out.

The Medical Tourism Association understands that International Patient Services Certification – IPSC™ will allow hospitals to take that next step.  What will IPSC™ certification do for us?  As the medical tourism market continues to grow and hospitals start to blend together, it will be the hospitals that go the extra mile in showing that they are consistently improving processes and procedures in addition to setting higher standards that will attract the market share.  International Patient Services Certification IPSC™ will assist buyers of healthcare, insurance companies, employers, benefits directors and consumers to the hospitals that stand above the rest.  So when consumers are deciding what hospital will not only exceed their healthcare needs, but provide an outstanding medical tourism experience, it will be the hospitals that obtain IPSC™ that their compasses direct them to.

How do you define and determine what policies processes and procedures are used in your international patient services department?

I am interested to know how the policies, procedures and processes are developed within an International Patient Services department. How do we know what are best practices? Where is the best place to obtain information on best practices?

If a hospital decides to offer and market international patient services, where do they find qualified staff? What determines that the staff member knows the industries “best practices”?

I know that this is a lot of questions, but can anyone provide me the answers?

In addition how does a prospective patient know what the hospitals international patient services department is using in providing the best patient outcomes?

Anyone who works in a international patient services department are welcome to assist me in finding the answers. Your participation is welcome.

The Medical Tourism Associaton provides International Patient Services Certification (IPSC)™

This certification provides your hospital with the increased knowledge in providing the best patient experience through specific processes, procedures, transparency and quality. In looking through the eyes of the international patient, a hospital can start to see its services in a different perspective. In knowing what fears, anticipated services and quality a international patient is expecting, a hospital can provide or improve their existing international patient services department. Having all international patients provide the hospital with a summary of their visit and information on what they liked or disliked can provide the hospital with valuable information in providing and improving international patient services.

What does a patient gain from your IPS Certification? They understand that in addition to an international accreditation like JCI, your hospital has invested time and has  a specific interest in making their International Patient Services department the best it can be, insuring positive patient outcomes. Today more employers, insurance companies and consumers are looking for ways to determine who will best meet their needs. Ask yourself, what are we as a hospital doing to let our prospective international patients know we have gone the extra mile in the development or improvement of our international patient services?

The Medical Tourism Association is reporting back from the International Medical Tourism Wellness & Spa Congress in Jordan. The organizer of the congress was the Private Hospitals Association – PHA in collaboration with the Medical Tourism Association.  The congress was a great success, some of the noted highlights were Renee-Marie Stephano MTA Presidents opening remarks on transparency, communication and education in the medical tourism marketplace and Bill Cook  from Hospital Clinica Biblica in Costa Rica.  Bills presentation on the patient experience and seeing the international patient services center through the eyes of the international patient was well received by the congress participants.  The MTA is currently working with PHA Hospitals on IPSC certification and related projects concerning the increased flow of international patients along with Hospital branding  in attracting international patients.

The MTA will be holding their international medical tourism congress this year October 24th-26th 2012 in Ft. Lauderdale Florida and is expecting to surpass last years participants numbers as the medical tourism industry grows and healthcare providers look to the MTA as the best in class provider in medical tourism information and resources.