Medical Tourism
What are the ethical issues and challenges facing medical tourism implementation and how can it be improved.
Aims:
To identify challenges in the implementation of medical tourism.
Analyses and synthesize relevant research and use the information to develop an action plan to facilitate the implementation of Medical tourism.
Objectives:
To identify problems that hinder the implementation of Medical tourism.
To consider ethical issues relevant to medical tourism in this setting.
To establish is medical tourism is being implemented the right way.
To look at ways to improve medical tourism for effective treatment.
Framework for proposal
The framework proposed by Punch (2016) will be used to clarify and justify the approach, method and design suggested in this proposal.
Background
Medical tourism is a growing industry in the world today. It comprises of situations where patients move from their home country to go and look for treatment abroad. The number of patients looking for various treatment abroad increases each day. Especially those suffering from chronic, dental, and cosmetic treatment. The most affected area in the south-east of Asia. Different issues come up during the medical tour and these issues raise other medial legal factors and concerns that affect the patient. This includes patient follow-up and patient handling of the foreign country. There should specialists who are experts in offering advice to patients concerning their travel, treatment strategies and also provide advice relating to the health of the patient looking for treatment in a foreign country (Heung, 2016).
Different countries apply different criteria while handling patients. Over time, it has been noted that there is unreliability in the assessment procedures for health care quality and this differs from one country to the other. Another challenge is the insufficient information provided to patients regarding the risk and complication involved in medical tourism. On the health ethical issues, there have been inadequate policies to govern all ethical issues. Handling of international patients needs legal policies which clearly states who patients from other countries are handled (Heung, 2016).
Most of the time patient s are not aware of the conditions and requirements for their treatment. The information given is inadequate affecting their planning and the overall treatment process. Due to the nature of these diseases, patients have very slight control in the decision-making process where they can give suggestions of where they would prefer to go and how the treatment process should be handled. Research has shown that people in underdeveloped countries are the most affected and they tend to look for help to the developed country. This is because of the cost implication attached to the facilities and equipment needed for the specific treatment.
This literature review will help in providing information necessary to streamline the medical tourism process right form the patient, doctor, and the engaged countries. The review will also help in deepening the understanding of factors affecting medical tourism, the challenges people face in this setting, and how they can be mitigated to improve this mode of treatment. In general, medical tourism is of great importance for it helps patients recover from diseases that would otherwise take them to grave if treatment is not sorted from the right specialists who have the required knowledge and the necessary equipment for the specific kind of treatment.
Preliminary literature review
The publication of Medical tourist issues has not been that aggressive and less information is available to people who could require it in one way or the other. This preliminary review will give in detail what is already known concerning medical tourists and by use of synthesis and analysis of findings, give the response regarding the research question being asked. The medical tourist aspect should be a platform to give new hope to millions of people who might be suffering in their countries without help. So, strengthening this sector will not only give a new look to the health sector worldwide but also give health institutions in underdeveloped countries a new look (Hanefeld et al, 2015).
The demand for good health services has been a worldwide phenomenon connected to the social-economic development of people. The increase in the population of the aged, environmental changes, the high cost of treatment in our home country, low standards of living, and desire for improved health services have been some of the factors contributing to the rising of the number of people suffering from chronic deceases. Sometimes people move in search of affordable services and services which are not available at their homes. The globe has been inter-linked especially in the health sector starting from manufacturing, supply, and trade of medical equipment between countries. Research done by Dr. Hongs (2014) revealed that there is an exponential growth in the number of Chinese people looking for treatment in the U.S where the growth was estimated to have grown with up to 400 percent. The Chinese come to the U.S mostly for oncological needs. A group of researchers in Texas at A&M Center suggested that there will be an increase of medical tourists in the US due to the increased wealth for the wealthy social class and because of development brought about by the internet. Dr. Hong also pointed on the information provided to the international patients saying that there is a need to have strategies laid that shall ensure international patients are provided with key information and policies which shall enable them to make informed decisions regarding their health.
The global community should come up with ways to streamline medical tours by understanding the barriers that affect effective medical tourists. Also, getting insights on how these barriers can be overcome. This review mainly analyzes these aspects to make the medical tour better and beneficial to all people. Every person has the right to access information especially when it comes to one’s health. But it has been noted that there has not been a clear communication channel between the health care centers and the patients. This makes it hard for patients to make decisions since their decisions will lack fundamental facts as far as medical tours are concerned (Fetscherin, 2016).
Due to lack of sufficient information, patients under the medical tour program sometimes akes uninformed decisions out of desperation. This is because it’s the responsibility of that country to have polices on ready which are used to guide the conduct of medical tours. The government should also come in to regulate the pricing systems to ensure all health care services are affordable to all people regardless of your financial status.
There should be a formulated council set apart in every country whose work is entire to offer guidance to international patients and provide all necessary support including information and advice. The state of mind of the medical tourist is never stable during this time and often they tend to make irrational decisions that may affect them later out of desperation. Patients tend to behave differently and this makes them make different choices concerning their health state, so what should be provided is just guidance on how they should conduct themselves in the new country but not to be given directives on how and what do conduct themselves. The same applies to decisions regarding the treatment procedures, there should be a room where the patient in entirely involved in any procedure taken during the treatment phase (Lunt et al, 2013).
Methodology.
The goal of this research is to do a literature review to realize the better quality and relevant findings that shall be synthesized, appraised, and then analyzed to get more understanding on how Medical Tourists should be implemented. An introductory engagement has been done in the ` preliminary of this review and it has been noted that some good steps and development have been done especially in south-east Asia and the US where they deal with specific diseases and they can give informed treatment. However, the implementation process in these two countries has been faced by certain identified problems which help in forming the basis of this research question (Nicola & Kai, 2015).
Countries such as India also helps in providing research finding on the issue. This helps to increase the size of the knowledge base where insights for our research question will be found. Different countries have different settings that make our research diverse and unbiased. By this, the researcher will be able to apply knowledge from different backgrounds to come up with a concrete answer to the research question. To get quality and the best review, there is a need to use a systematic approach without being subjective (Caballero-Danell & Mugomba, 2017).
To have a well-developed, applicable, and reduced biasness, pre-defined research terms, inclusion method, and approach exclusion criteria shall be exercised to note significant studies. It has been projected that a range of distinct findings approaches shall be identified and this will enable the application of a descriptive approach rather than the application of meta-analysis. The meta-analysis approach is applicable when the research is interested in determining the size and effects of size and result by synthesizing the analysis on statistics of stated similar findings like trials done randomly (Aveyard, 2017).
Due to the nature of this research question, the primary data collection method could be used where the research would engage in interviews with groups of professionals like doctors, patients, and government agencies to respond to questions that made give answers to the research question. Primary methods such as observation could also be applied where the researcher will schedule some time to observe the behavior of medical tourists and out of their conduct derive answers for the research question. However, the primary method for data collection is expensive and time-consuming, and relying only on this method might provide data that is not complete. This call for embracing other methods which in turn are integrated to provide findings that are complete and systematic. Another aspect is the ethical part for the Medical tourists. The data collection method must provide answers to all sides of the research questions, and following only the primary data collection method the aspect of ethics might be missed (Tidwell, 2013).
Sample/ Methods of data collection
Through the systematic method, the literature shall be noted using important keywords from databases such as PsycInfo, PubMed, Emerald, and MEDLINE. Also, the use of journals, peer published and reviewed studies will help to eliminate biasness in the research findings. Unpublished work sometimes can also be used since it may provide more insight into the research. The use of different databases during a search is important since this will give a diverse and distributed view which brought together forms a strong reviewed finding (Gill, 2018). Biasness is often encountered when researchers rely on one search form or database and this may take away the feeling and touch of data accuracy. Search repetition in the given databases also helps in retrieving all necessary information that may be of help answering the research question.
Inclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria
Primary peer-reviewed Study
Studies were done in other languages rather than English
Unpublished Work
Untrusted Data
Government policies
Children work
Work from 1990 to date
Work from mentally challenged people
Specialist opinion
Reasons for inclusion approach and exclusion method or criteria:
The unique significance of applying the inclusion method is to ensure data collected is within the required range. For example, the range of years used is to ensure, the research only works with data from the time Medical tours began today. This will give a historical and systematic report on how medical tour began and the challenges that have been implemented over the years and mostly where the issues stand currently. Primary data for research is the best in proving timely and relevant information giving on-site evidence that can be used to draw important conclusions during the research (Patino, 2018). The use of experts involved in medical tours is of great importance, this is because they provide hand on information that is most relevant to the topic of study. Experts on this matter are specialists whose domain of work is dealing with medical tourists. They understand problems the medical tourists face and they well understand the required recommendations to improve this health sector. Experts carry the practical part of it and any information shared with us backed up by real experiences though the procedure must be carefully done (Kazemi, 2018).
Unpublished work will also be used to ensure every information relevant to the research is found and recorded. Experiences of people who have undergone the process are of great significance though they might not be published. Countries, where medical tours have been implemented, provide a good example where hospitals involved can give information on how they have been operating and also give examples of challenges they have been experiencing since they began (Aust Fam Physician, 2015).
Involving the governments for different states help in identifying different policies set and implemented by different countries. Since the research id did and documented in English, the resources used shall be in the English language to avoid omission of important details that might be left behind during translation. The people involved during data collection must be of sound mind. This is to ensure data collected is correct and reliable. Children shall not be used in data collection since they may lack the necessary knowledge to answer as far as the research question is concerned.
Methods/Access
The following table shows the terms used during the search together with synonyms. Some of these names shall be used interchangeably and frequently u
Medical Touristsed throughout the research (Meline, 2016).
Search term:
Patients
Experts
Hospital staff
Ethics
Synonyms
Medical Tours
Hospitalized
Hospital
Secondary care
Specialists
Nursing staff
Hospital staff
Multi-disciplinary team
Doctors
Medics
Mental Capacity
Wildcards and truncation
Medical Tour Plan
Hospitalized
Diseases
Ethic*
Wildcards and truncation
Data collection: Appraisal, Synthesis, and Analysis
For a literature review to be complete there must be three steps that should guide the process. This process involves assembling and data gathering, synthesizing, and analyzing. During the initials steps of data collection and assembling, data is thoroughly to validate the correctness of the work presented and check its relevancy. Then selected works are then critically validated to identify their limitations, strengthens, their relevance as far as the research question is considered. Advanced tools used for data critique shall be employed to give guidance to the data verification process. For this research, a Critical review form for quantitative work shall be employed. This tool presents evidence-based guidance on how the questions have been created and provides a guideline to the users especially for the work that needs to be appraised. The appraisal process is significant since it provides information on whether data collected can provide sufficient and convincing evidence that can be used to conclude the research. The findings shall later be recorded correctly and verified to ensure only relevant data is recorded (Okoli & Schabram, 2015).
After the proper recording of all verified studies, they are further grouped into a tally matrix where arguments on each study are checked to ensure whether the data is relevant or it’s still questionable. This analysis is to ensure the research findings provided the relevant answers to the research question. The step by step analysis ensures that the research reaches a justified conclusion that shows that the findings have been critically reviewed, corrected, and critiqued using the best methods (Snyder, 2015).
Ethical Issues
Ethical issues are things that people and organizations have to make decisions between given alternatives which need to be evaluated to be right (ethical) or wrong.everything that is done should be ethically right and accepted deep down the hearts of people. The study done should be ethically right in its implementation and any other process attached to it. The study ensures all ethical codes and values are adhered to by providing original records that have not been plagiarized. In the case of using someone else’s information, it shall be referenced appropriately (Beecher, 2015). As far as there are laws that govern any particular state, lawyers always put aside what is written as asked themselves where the lawing to be made it ethically right or wrong. Any development or improvement especially in the health sector should ensure the values of people in that particular country are not violated. When a subject is ethically correct, people tend to embrace it so fast unlike when it comes to the implementation of a project that goes against the values and believes of the people.
Rigor
Rigor represents the accuracy of the data collected and used for research purposes. To ensure accuracy, care must be taken during the data collection process, analysis phase, and recording to ensure the information recorded is of the best quality and is beneficial to the research done.
Accuracy of the study shall be achieved by ensuring that the research has been done following an arranged and systematic way. Search terms should be provided in the method and rationale on why to use the selected method given. Use of the right tools for critique and appraisal throughout the study. In conclusion, it shall be carefully done to ensure that conclusion given has been generalized (Bettany, 2012). The most critical part of this particular research is in the method of data collection used, how the data was analyzed, and how was the findings recorded. If all steps are done as expected, it would be a clear indication that the data provided is authentic and can be trusted.
Limitation
Working under a tight time frame and the research being a post-graduate work requires careful consideration to ensure getting the best results. Activities outlined in the work frame should be done and deliverables presented at the required stages. The student should use the skills learned before to ensure data synthesis and analysis are done systematically. Be careful to note every step taken to advance skills on the subject matter. The time set is for ensuring no step as been skipped and that all deliverables are presented at the right time.
Time frame
Time frame is a planned schedule used in project management tas a guide in ensuring project activities are done on time and deliverables expected received the right time. Every activity must feature somewhere in the time frame to ensure no step has been skipped. The completion of a single stage in timeframe leads to another activity within the time frame. Therefore all activities in this research project are linked together to form one systematic method for project implementation.
Activity/Month
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Scoping Search
Develop Question
Write Background
Prelim Review
Search And Select
Appraise
Synthesis/Analysis
First Written Draft
Edit And Re-Write
Action Plan
Dissemination
The study shall be used to form a prototype of setting up a better Medical Tour where medical tourists shall enjoy better health services. This work remains privately owned and anyone desiring to be part of its application or own it should first request permission to the relevant body.
References
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