Abstract:

Medical tourism can be defined as traveling to a different country for various reasons to meet this need for individuals in need of health care, and stay in that country for more than a day and less than a year. This study was carried out in order to determine the studies in the field of medical tourism, which has important benefits for the economy of countries and it is important because it is thought to contribute to medical tourism. The research was conducted in Antalya, which has the characteristic of being a touristic city, by interviewing 14 hospital officials based on the qualitative research method. Within the scope of this study, it has been determined that studies such as institution-based studies on public relations and marketing, written visual and digital studies, services out of the hospital are carried out. It has been detected that they conduct studies such as determining criteria in the selection of doctors related to human resources and criteria in the selection of personnel. It was determined that they carried out studies such as form studies on patient rights and ethics in foreign languages, interpreter support for health tourists, and presentation of documents to the patient in their language. It has been found that they are conducting personnel-based studies and hospital-based studies regarding the infrastructure of the hospital. It has been understood that institutions are aware of the supports related to financial incentives in health tourism but do not benefit from all of them. Since the research shows that the number of hospitals benefiting from financial incentives in health tourism is low, it may be recommended to work on financial incentives in health tourism for future studies.

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