Even though Spain’s single-payer healthcare system is considered among the best in the world, patients — like anywhere else — complain about the long wait to see specialists and undergo certain procedures.
Representatives from Medical Tourism Association were on hand to listen to some of these concerns from Spanish healthcare organizations and offer solutions at a conference earlier this month, in Barcelona, designed to increase revenues and reduce costs for healthcare providers by maximizing technology transfer.
ACES Day, Technology to Improve Results in Private Hospitals, sponsored in part by Medical Tourism Association and Catalan Association for Health (ACES), attracted more than 150 organizations that were provided with a series of case studies and tools to enhance the quality of patient-care centers in Spain.
Elevate Awareness
Cristina Cardona, executive global program of the Medical Tourism Association and an invited speaker, addressed medical tourism opportunities for healthcare providers in the northeast region of Spain and technological requirements that private facilities need to compete globally.
Jornada ACES was an excellent opportunity to discuss with providers in Catalua business opportunities that medical tourism can offer to increase the flow of international patients as well as revenue for private patient centers, said Cardona, who spoke with a number of participants interested in becoming medical tourism players.
Medical Tourism Association builds consumer awareness of international healthcare options through outreach efforts at conventions and conferences in the United States and across the globe and with initiatives including its Health & Wellness Destination Guides, Medical Tourism Magazine, an annual World Medical Tourism and Global Healthcare Congress, numerous partnership and networking activities, online education and certification programs, and No. 1 rated Internet portal for healthcare consumers, http://www.medicaltourism.com, among others.
Knowledge Tent
There is a tremendous opportunity to deliver effective healthcare to patients across the globe, said Renee-Marie Stephano, co-founder and president of the Medical Tourism Association. The challenge then is to bring together various resources, techniques and systems to maximize the wealth of medical knowledge, technological advances and pharmaceutical breakthroughs that emerge each day.
The World Health Organization ranks the Spanish healthcare system seventh in the world, largely because the European nation offers universal coverage as a constitutionally guaranteed right without out-of-pocket expenses aside from prescription drugs. The Joint Commission International, a significant determinant for patients choosing a medical tourism destination, has accredited 20 hospitals and clinics in Spain.
Established in 1977, ACES is a business association dedicated to the defense and promotion of labor rights, business and mercantile in the areas of health and social welfare.
