Why is Medical Tourism Important
Medical tourism is no longer unknown, especially in border regions around the world. However, the location itself is never too remote, but there are occasions when the procedure has to be carried out in one of the most prestigious clinics in the world, as the only way to healing. However, this sector is not very well developed in Austria, where there are only a few private hospitals, the Wiener Privatklinik (WPK) being one of the most important. More about the Importance of Medical Tourism here!
Awarded one of the World's Top Hospitals
For the second year in a row, the WPK has been awarded one of the world's top hospitals, and has been awarded an international certificate by the American Newsweek. The ranking of the world's top hospitals, which Newsweek has published in conjunction with Statista, this year included more than 2 200 hospitals in 27 countries around the world.
The main criteria for WPK patients to receive this award are health care professionals' recommendations, patient surveys, quality management and key performance indicators (KPIs).
"WPK is a private hospital with the highest number of patients in Austria. Medical tourism is developing very fast around the world, and people are becoming better informed through the internet and media. We have about 150 medical tourism agencies from all over the world and they are the first point of information for patients, bringing them to different countries. The agencies consider what the needs of the patients are, what doctors are needed, what type of care and then give the necessary information about the institutions where they can get the best possible treatment", Dr Walter Ebm, Director General of the Wiener Privatklinik (Wiener Privatklinik), told Biznis.rs.
An Organised Infrastructure for International Patients
The hospital was founded in 1871 and has treated patients from various countries, which is why its staff, who are also doctors, have developed an organised infrastructure for international patients from Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, Ukraine and many other countries.
One of the staff members in charge of the administration for communication with international clients, Andrey Chervyakov, says that it is his responsibility to organise meetings and support international clients during their struggle at the WPK.
"Communication between the doctor and the patient, banning, invoicing, littering, follow-ups, it all falls under my domain. If the patient does not speak English or German, we also offer linguistic support. We are working with more medical tourism agencies and we are always looking for new partners, and we are in contact with both legal and physical entities. The arrangement is done by a medical tourism agency sending us a preliminary request about the patient - what is needed and/or what is the health condition of the patient", Cervjakov told our portal.
He added that his task is to then provide information and analysis to either a specialist or a diagnostician who can see the patient and decide on the correct corrections (some consultations are also possible online to a certain extent, which is also one of the advantages of the clinic).
WPK also works with patients and business partners and agencies from Ukraine and Russia. Chevriakov explains that nothing has changed in their relationship, but they treat people from all over the world the same way and they are happy to work with the world.
"Even so, it has become extremely difficult to travel from these lands to our country. Since the beginning of the year in Ukraine, the number of travellers from these two countries has been reduced, and new travellers continue to arrive. These are the people who have destroyed security in European countries. Many of them live in Serbia", Chervyakov said.
As we know, one of the problems for Russian citizens is how many of them do not have a place in the EU. What is interesting and what makes it easier for patients to work at the private hospital is that a lot of employees come from different countries. Thus, Andrei Cherdyakov is from Russia, while WPK's Marketing and PR Director for International Patients, Ema Hafner, is from Romania.
In this medical facility, there are also some nurses from Serbia whom our patients often train themselves, and the clinic's owners have told journalists that they would like to recruit more staff from Serbia.
"We have a multicultural staff at WPK. They all speak English, but many of them speak a higher language. We are focused on international patients, who come to us for medical treatments and diagnostics that they can find here. ", explained Hafner to Biznis.rs.