Here is the article on Patient Survey Results

http://www.medicaltourismmag.com/detail.php?Req=224&issue=10

What is intersting here is :

* 49% of patients used Internet to find out about Medical Tourism Industry
   If you are a Doctor / Hospital - all the more important for you to be writing articles on medical tourism

* 73% of patients used Internet to research on Country Destinations and Hospitals
  Hospitals / Doctors must have online presence and have a good informative site for patients

* 32% of patients traveled for Weight Loss,  22% for Orthopedic and 12% for Cosmetic Surgery
   Doctors/Hospitals who specialize in Orthopedic, Cosmetic and Weight Loss treatments absolutely must have solid web presence

* 83% of patients traveled with a companion
  Your hospital will need special rooms that can accomodate guests and have international class facilities

* 93% of patient's companion traveled around locally for tourism,shopping, food, etc
  Have an infodesk setup or outsource your Tourism facilitation to professional agency who helps companion with A class treatment

* 70% of patients rated the hospital they visited as "Excellent" and 27% as "Very Good"
This shows that patients do value the overall treatment and experience they receive in International destinations

* 44% of patients did not use Medical Tourism faciliator and 37% of patients who used them found the services of facilitator "Excellent"  and 12% found them helpful.
Doctors and Hospitals can gets patients directly without engaging facilitators. Feature rich portal like "Kosansh" can be used to market their facilities and expertise. Facilitator can still be used where there are patients with special needs.

* 59% of patients would recommend future patient to use a facilitator
Engaging a facilitator in your local region/country who works with network of hospitals can certainly help patients to help make sound choices like budget, hospital rating, accreditation, paper work, travel arrangements, etc.

* 71% of patients did not find any language barrier at all at  International Hospitals and 29% who had occasional language issues were able to easily overcome them without having any impact on their medical treatment.
Future Patients can be assured that they will not have language and communication issues and will have a solid wavelength with hospital staff.

Other stats :

* 57% of patients felt very safe overseas and 37% safe.

* 85% of patients felt that the service they received overseas was more personalized than what they are used to in US.

* 93% of patients felt that they would recommend a friend, relative or acquaintance to get medical treatment at international location

* 88% of patients who traveled internationally for treatment said they would travel again at international destination for medical treatment

* 58% of patients of those who traveled overseas for treatment did not have health insurance

* 59% of patients stated that it was very important for them to have Hospital Accreditation as a key criteria in decision making.

* 63% of patients felt their overall medical treatment experience in International location was better than what they would have got in US