Miami, Florida hospitals are partnering with the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) to market Miami as a destination for international patients. Deloitte estimated in 2008 that 400,000 international patients go to the US for medical care, but since then other sources have suggested it is much higher and the current figure could be around 750,000. Ironically, the country most targeted by overseas destinations, the USA, now probably has more inbound medical tourists than there are Americans going overseas.
Miami, Florida hospitals are partnering with the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) to market Miami as a destination for international patients. Deloitte estimated in 2008 that 400,000 international patients go to the US for medical care, but since then other sources have suggested it is much higher and the current figure could be around 750,000. Ironically, the country most targeted by overseas destinations, the USA, now probably has more inbound medical tourists than there are Americans going overseas.
In the 1990s Miami, attempted to market the city as a medical tourism destination, but the campaign collapsed as hospitals became more concerned about competing with each other for international business than working together to promote the region. Much has happened in medical tourism since then, including the rise of domestic US medical tourism.
Two years ago, Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce’s healthcare group approached the GMCVB about helping them develop a sales and marketing plan that promoted medical tourism, for all the hospitals in the area. The bureau has created a brochure in English and Spanish which is also being translated into Portuguese, and created the website Miami Health. GMCVB is negotiating with Miami International Airport to make the entry process for international patients as simple as possible.
Miami hospital Baptist Health South Florida has been actively involved in medical tourism for 13 years. The hospital cleverly tailors which services it promotes depending on the country of origin. In some countries, oncology is important, while in others the key concern is cardiology. Self-pay patients are the majority of international patients, but the hospital is targeting overseas insurance companies and getting some success. Patients mainly come from Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada. The hospital appreciates that patients traveling to another country need more looking after than domestic patients, so it offers concierge services to help the patient and any accompanying family with arranging accommodation, transport and other needs. It has one of the largest hospital-based international programmes in America. Thousands of people each year travel to Miami from around the world to visit so it has multilingual staff to assist with medical and travel needs.
Miami Children’s Hospital (MCH) treats overseas children who come with at least one parent so have to help with arranging affordable hotels plus transport to and from the hospital. Children who are have serious or critical problems may need long-term treatment so families need cheap accommodation. Special corporate rates have been negotiated for international patients and their families with hotels and apartments. MCH has a Lifeflight Team, whose helicopters pick up critically ill children from Latin American countries and the Caribbean. International alliances such as one with the Moscow Center for Pediatric Craniofacial Surgery and Neurology in Moscow also bring patients. MCH provides specialised medical care to thousands of international patients a year. It diagnoses and treats life-threatening heart problems, brain tumours, kidney disease, congenital disorders and other complex conditions.
Baptist International recently signed an agreement with the government of Aruba to help it improve medical service in its country, and is acting as consultants on construction of a new hospital. MCH has a research alliance in Colombia that is expected to eventually bring medical tourists in.
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