NuWire Inc. has selected its "Top Five Medical Tourism Destinations," which the company says present the most attractive opportunities for medical tourists and foreign investors. The destinations were selected based on quality and affordability of care, as well as receptiveness to foreign investment. NuWire notes that medical staffs in the countries chosen are largely English-speaking, and thus language barriers do not pose a major obstacle for foreign patients.
One of the India's top health officials calls medical tourism a "waste of resources" if the money earned by private hospitals is not used to treat the poor. "I am not very keen on medical tourism," said Health Secretary Naresh Dayal. "It's a wastage of resources that I think should be utilized to better the health condition of our own people." Statistics show India's medical tourism market is growing and is expected to become a $2 billion a year business opportunity by 2012.
When I talk to executives at leading healthcare organizations that have recently made the strategic move into global healthcare, they stress the importance of getting their C-suite team on the ground as quickly as possible. The idea is a simple one: that a team of experienced leaders with varied disciplines can influence change and quality improvement quicker than a heavy-handed CEO on his own.
And yet I hear that many healthcare leadership teams continue to struggle with this concept. In far too many hospitals, the CEO doesn't just have the final say on strategic decisions--he has the only say. This is a key problem for global hospitals that face numerous challenges and opportunities: finding the golden mean of a CEO who is involved intimately in the growth of the organization, but not required in all organizational decisions.
Some of the organizations that have developed effective systems are among those that have submitted entries to our HealthLeaders Media Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare program. In their written entries, leaders tell us their stories of winning teamwork, and the best stories over the five years of the program are of those organizations that overcame immense obstacles because they had few barriers between key leaders.
To attain dynamic leadership teams, some global health systems are aligning with the top names in healthcare--Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and University of Pittsburgh, to name a few--but this trend doesn't mean that top leadership teams cannot come from within. The Top Leadership Teams program has taught us that the qualities of effective teamwork are not exclusive to well-heeled organizations. In fact, some our best stories over the years have come from the leaders at small hospitals and medical groups that took on ambitious goals.
This year's Top Leadership Teams program is especially exciting for me because we have expanded our categories to include global hospitals and health systems. I recently spoke about the global category with Maureen Potter, vice president of International Services for HCPro, Inc., who is coordinating the judging of global entries. She says the judges are looking for organizations that develop through leadership collaboration and have no tolerance for silos.
Global hospitals are expected to see continual growth, with some forecasting that the medical travel industry will reach $50 billion (US) by 2010. But for CEOs of these organizations to be effective, they need the full complement of leaders supporting them.
If you have a good story of teamwork, I encourage you to share it with us. Who knows, maybe you'll be our first global winner of the Top Leadership Teams program. The deadline for global entries has been extended to April 4, 2008, so you still have time. Find out more about the program at www.topleadershipteams.net.
Annapolis, MD-based Anne Arundel Medical Center and Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, MD, are in the midst of major expansions meant to meet growing demand by greatly increasing their capacity and offering new services. Both hospitals have also built flexibility into their expansions to prepare for additional growth. Some of the floors new towers at each of the hospitals will be empty shells ready to complete when the need arises.
Indiana University plans to have students take clinical rotations at hospitals outside Indianapolis starting in fall 2008. After launching pilot rotations in South Bend and Fort Wayne, IU eventually plans to expand to several other cities. In addition to helping the medical school accommodate its larger class sizes, officials hope to expose students to parts of the state they might want to return to for work.
Preservationists are expected to battle a controversial development proposal for St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, fearing that New York City will sanction the destruction of nine buildings in a historic district to allow the construction of two enormous towers. Opponents say the towers would blight their low-rise neighborhood and undermine the value of landmark protection throughout the city. St. Vincent representatives say the project is necessary to reach the hospital's goal of providing a top-level trauma center and advanced teaching hospital to serve more than a million people.