Research by the Deloitte Center has found that outbound medical tourism is expected to increase over the next three to five years. Reasons cited for this growth include the increasing quality of medical treatments overseas and the increasing cost of healthcare in America.
The success of medical tourism relies on trust, according to Lee Sang-jun, president of dermatology and cosmetic surgery clinic Anacli, located in Korea. Many patients are hesitant and sometimes fearful of receiving medical care in foreign countries. To relieve this fear, he says, it's important for physicians to use care in establishing trust with patients and making them feel comfortable.
Hennepin County Medical Center, Minnesota's biggest safety-net hospital, is cutting 100 jobs and freezing capital spending at a time when demand for its services is growing. HCMC blamed the moves on reductions in state funding announced last month. The 100 jobs, which represent 3% of the hospital workforce, will disappear by the end of February. About 80% of them are vacant; the rest will come from a combination of layoffs and reduced hours.
Caritas Christi Health Care, a chain of six hospitals owned by the Archdiocese of Boston, said it has reached a wide-ranging agreement with Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union. The move makes Caritas the first of the region's teaching-hospital organizations to embrace the union's organizing strategy. For Caritas Christi, the accord guarantees a period of peaceful labor relations. In turn, SEIU receives a promise that management will not interfere with its organizing efforts, making it easier to unionize many of Caritas Christi's 13,000 Massachusetts employees. As part of the agreement, management will allow "free and fair" union elections.
Los Angeles County hospitals are standardizing the forms patients sign before surgery in response to a malpractice lawsuit that cost the county $1.6 million to settle. Health Services Department official Carol Meyer said the new standardized consent forms will be in use by the end of the year. A patient filed a lawsuit following a back surgery that left her paralyzed in 2005, and claimed no one explained the risks of the surgery to her.
Caritas Christi Health Care chief executive Ralph de la Torre, MD, said the hospital chain is close to signing a payment deal with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts. The move to an "alternative quality contract" will boost payments to Caritas Christi from Blue Cross, and give it an opportunity to earn more than it could in a traditional contract based on annual payment increases. Blue Cross-Blue Shield's proposal involves a flat fee based on the number of patients treated, but caregivers can also earn bonuses by meeting quality targets.