Serving patients beyond borders: a study at a selected private tertiary care hospital in eastern India

The term medical tourism is the amalgamation of two highly essential entities; medical which defines the health care sectors and tourism that defines travelling for any purpose. Due to globalization and thereby generated consumerism, when the physical, financial and psychological barriers are diminishing between the countries, the people are more aware, conscious, informed and they don’t hesitate to avail the good quality products and services irrespective of their proximities. In this line, the phenomenon of medical tourism has also exploded over the years and currently it has become a $100 billion industry. Though a late starter, India has done relatively well in attracting the medical tourists after implementing the liberalization process in 1990s. The whole hearted support given by the government, pool of talented & experienced doctors, other technical & nursing staffs, affordability, English speaking population, rich natural and cultural heritage sites etc. has made it an attractive proposition over the years. But the million dollar question that arises here is about competitiveness with existing global powers in terms of quality, affordability, technology and infrastructure. If we visit the recent occurrences in television and news papers, we come across very distressing news about the healthcare failures across India. Incidences of child and maternal mortalities, undeveloped/ under developed health care infrastructures, social taboos, outbreak of several life risking diseases like dengue, malaria, swine flu etc., are the common headlines appearing in the media. It puts a serious question mark on our efforts towards offering world class health care facilities. With this in background, we have tried to assess the current health care service quality in the state of Odisha with the use of SERVQUAL scale. Samples were taken from three of the renowned private teaching / tertiary care hospitals situated in the state capital. Based on the findings and instigated by the recommendations, we have listed many areas where we can improvise in order to upgrade over the current state of affairs.