Outbound Medical Tourism from Mongolia

The medical tourism research group at Simon Fraser University in Canada has reported why Mongolians travel for treatment in ‘Outbound Medical Tourism from Mongolia’. Some doctors and health care administrators think that developing a more patient centred approach in Mongolia’s public health care system will lessen the number of Mongolian patients who go to other countries for treatment.

The medical tourism research group at Simon Fraser University in Canada has reported why Mongolians travel for treatment in ‘Outbound Medical Tourism from Mongolia’

Some doctors and health care administrators think that developing a more patient centred approach in Mongolia’s public health care system will lessen the number of Mongolian patients who go to other countries for treatment.

One of the main reasons that Mongolian patients go abroad is because they are dissatisfied with how they are treated in the public health care system. If these issues are addressed through system reforms that focus on improving provider-patient relations, patients may be more willing to access medical care domestically.

The Mongolian health care system is perceived by some to be highly political. Personal connections with health care administrators, doctors, and political figures may be used by some patients to gain access to better or faster medical care locally. The outflow of Mongolian patients through medical tourism may act as an impetus for health system reforms, ultimately reducing the influence of personal connections on access to health care as the government seeks to retain patients.

The Mongolian health care system has a poor reputation in some domestic circles, being perceived as ineffective, inefficient, and/or of low quality. While this view is certainly not held by all Mongolians, this perception motivates some patients to pursue medical care in other countries. If this perception can be changed by improving the reputation of the Mongolian health system domestically, fewer Mongolians will travel abroad for care.

Creating new types of private medical care in Mongolia (private hospitals) is seen to be one way of retaining local patients who would otherwise travel abroad for medical care.