Strategies to Counter Malpractice in Medical Tourism
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Medical tourism complicates healthcare systems considerably, and they’re already quite complex when they’re serving local patients exclusively. When you add international patients into the mix, there are other basics needs that should be met: addressing cultural differences and providing professional language services. However, that’s an issue for another day. Today, we’ll be examining how the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has implemented strategies to ensure patient satisfaction and decrease malpractice, which has boosted its medical tourism.
Medical Tourism Insurance
The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has implemented a medical tourism insurance program to ease the way for a patient to receive treatment in Dubai. International patients can use this insurance to cover the costs of a surgery or procedure needed because of complications or an emergency, up to 183,500 dirhams (around $50,000). It only costs about 150 dirhams (about $40) per person. The insurance company and the facilities cover the costs of the return flight, hotel expenses, and extra treatment.
Easy-Access Tools and More Information
The DHA maintains a website and a medical tourism portal (Dubai Health Exchange [DHX]) where potential patients can book procedures, obtain a visa, and even get discounts on airfare, insurance, hotel accommodations, shuttles, and visas. There is also an app version. The Abu Dhabi Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) have jointly launched a medical tourism e-portal. The UAE also created the Patient Bill of Rights, which can be downloaded here, detailing the patient’s and their family’s rights and responsibilities while receiving treatment in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Medical Liability Law
The UAE’s new law (Law No. 4 of 2016) became effective in September of 2016, and the changes attempt to issue justice more impartially in malpractice cases. The new law requires all malpractice claims to be referred to the Medical Liability Committee before being brought before any judicial authorities--no civil claim regarding medical malpractice will be accepted unless it has been reviewed by the committee. This streamlines patient complaints to one authority, expedites the duration of malpractice cases, and prevents patients from taking legal actions against healthcare professionals if the committee doesn’t find any malpractice. Patients and healthcare professionals have the option to challenge the committee’s report and the Supreme Committee for Medical Liability would review these grievances.
The JAWDA System
The Health Authority - Abu Dhabi (HAAD) implemented a new quality system called JAWDA in 2014. In this program, hospitals are rated according to 100 different indicators, covering four main areas of evaluation: patient safety, effectiveness of care, timeliness of service delivery and level of focus on patient needs. If a hospital’s standard of care drops or fails any specific indicator in a case, the administration/management and the patient are contacted. Facilities supply HAAD with the data quarterly and the data will eventually be published. And this system seems to have worked. Dr Al Mannaei, Director of Quality at the DOH, stated,
“In a year, the number of deaths due to heart attacks outside critical care centres have reduced by 50%. Pressure ulcers and bed sores have gone down by 31%, unplanned readmission rates have gone down by 20% and medical complications because of surgery have decreased 60%.”
So, what are some ways that healthcare systems can avoid malpractice when dealing with international patients and countries can boost their medical tourism?
Make information about facilities, services, and visa procedures easier to access.
Maintain one multilingual, unified website/portal where international patients can browse all the facilities and services the country/city provides and can learn about obtaining correct visa and booking accommodations.
Offer special insurance for medical tourists.
Offering medical insurance to remedy malpractice or complications, reassures potential medical tourists, and would foster higher-quality services.
Create a system to impartially review malpractice cases.
Both patients and doctors need a fair avenue to pursue malpractice claims/grievances, especially when on an international scale.
Establish a system that reviews the quality of patient care.
As we saw with JAWDA, simply collecting data on a quarterly basis has helped Abu Dhabi to improve their healthcare system, which in turn boosted their medical tourism.