Yousef Pashaei Asl, Dr Ali Janati, Dr Masoumeh Ghliadeh, Dr Ebrahim Jaafaripooyan , Mohammad Taghi Khodayari, Dr Mohammad Arab,
Volume 16, Issue 4 (2-2018)
Abstract
Background: Necessity of development, quantity and quality improvement needs of medical tourists had been unavoidable based on medical tourism growth with its competitive function. This study aimed to determine satisfaction rate of medical tourists referee to Tabriz hospitals to get treatment services.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive and analytical study was conducted on 82 medical tourists referee to all wards of selected hospitals using convenient sampling method in Tabriz city. Data was collected using a-28 items valid and reliable researcher made questionnaire. Cronbach’s Alpha was calculated 0.708. In order to data analysis, SPSS Software version 23 was utilized. Also, Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used to assess the association between different aspects of patients’ satisfaction.
Results: Satisfaction rate was obtained in five main aspects including cultural problems (51.88%), structural issue (57.50%), insurance payment system (16.04%), information system and communication channels (41.34%) the economic challenges (50.35%). The information system and communication channels had high effect on economic aspects (p<0.001).
Conclusion: It seems necessary that health policy makers and managers pay more attention to foreign medical tourists and faced challenges correction in order to change Tabriz city to a medical tourism center of excellence and improving regional economic development.
