Foreign Patients Shop for Medical Services
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
You land at an airport where a chauffer awaits you holding a signboard. He takes you to a hospital where you perhaps have an operation or some form of treatment. The chauffer picks you up and takes you to a hotel where you prepare for the next leg of your journey.
You may well ask: Is this a tour with medical care included or is it the other way round ― a medical trip with some traveling thrown in? The answer is the latter, a relatively new market for the Korean medical field and of course the tourism industry.
Medical tourism is becoming the latest buzz phrase. The Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs has announced its willingness to support it and all hospitals are gearing up to attract to Korea those wanting state-of-the-art treatment at a relatively cheap price.
The main targets at this stage are Japanese and Chinese people due to their close proximity and attraction to Korea and its culture through television dramas or movies. Also the number of people coming from the United States, especially those of Korean ethnicity, is on rise as their private health insurance often does not cover treatment in their country, making it much cheaper to come to Korea.
``More and more people are being attracted by the high quality of Korean surgeons,'' BK Dong Yang Plastic Surgery hospital spokesman Lee Mi-kyung said.
They are opening clinics for foreigners, and collaborating with tourist agencies to come up with package tour programs that provides them with a full service.
Medical center's are attracted to this opportunity as many offer treatments that are not covered by insurance, which means more profit for the services providers. Also, it gives them new chances to move forward into the international market.
There are 33 hospitals enrolled at the Council for Korea Medicine Overseas Promotion, an organization to promote medical tourism to Korea and structure the programs for it. They hold seminars and promotion campaigns with travel agencies to develop this new industry.
They all aim at providing the best services to their clients, but each have their own characteristics and specifications in dealing with the overseas healthcare seekers.
Making Room for Foreigners.
Building a special ward or a clinic for foreigners is becoming a boom, enhanced by the Lee Myung-bak administration's hint at allowing the establishment of hospitals for commercial purposes.
General hospitals are lining up to take advantage of the situation. The Severance Hospital in Seoul leads the market at the moment with its more than 100 years of know-how and international standards and connections, while other university hospitals are not far behind.
Hanyang University Medical Center has been preparing for tourism of this kind since 2003. It is now working with travel agencies in the U.S., Japan, China and several other countries to create diversified package tour programs.
``There, you have airplane fares, medical treatment and health check fees added altogether and with large discounts,'' Kim Dae-hee, the hospital spokesman said, adding that its recent collaboration with Sharp Travel Service in Chicago was seeing great success.
The hospital has an international clinic where doctors and nurses can communicate with patients in both English and French. More than 150 people a year use it and the number is steadily increasing, he said.
The hospital is also looking to franchise abroad. In March, it opened Hanyang-United Rheumatism Center in Ho Chi Minh and is targeting not only Vietnam but also the whole of Southeast Asia.
Konyang University Hospital offers cyber-knife surgery where more precision in operations is possible. ``We bet we are the leaders in such treatment in Korea at the moment, which is exceptional effective in cancer surgery,'' its spokesman Kim Sung-soo said.
Located in Daejeon, the hospital is targeting not only foreign nationals living abroad but also those staying in Korea in Chungcheong, Jeolla and other provinces.
Ajou University Medical Center is aiming at round-the-clock foreigner service. English and other language speaking staff will be available at the center throughout the day. The hospital accepts foreigners' health insurance, which is quite rare in Korea at the moment.
More than 800 people a month from Mongolia, the U.S., and Russia among other countries come for treatment as the staff gain more know-how, techniques and confidence in dealing with them.
Premium Services in Niche Markets
Also, being located in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, the hospital is not far from tour sites such as Everland amusement park, folk towns and Suwon Hwaseong.
Private specialized hospitals are set to offer prestigious and unique services to seek profits.
BK Dong Yang Plastic Surgery offers a full red carpet service for the foreign visitor. It provides a chauffer service from the airport and a free translation service.
Patients are well informed about what to expect before they come as a ``pseudo-operation system'' has been set up, on the Internet, where counselors give patients an image of the sort of treatment they are likely to get. If a patient is satisfied, the ball can start rolling. ``In this way, they can save time and energy,'' spokeswoman Lee Mi-kyung said.
The hospital also runs Web sites in English, Japanese and Chinese. ``We are receiving more than 30-40 patients a month and most of them receive surgery for more than two body parts,'' she said.
Wooridul Medical Center specializing in spinal treatment has its own International Patient Center. There, it helps patients get visas, insurance and other matters related to treatment. It also provides services in English, Japanese, Chinese and French and other languages, while running chauffer and hotel reservation services for families, and tours around Seoul.
The hospital also receives information on patients ― check ups, diagnoses, MRI or CT pictures and others ― in advance from local hospitals. In this way patients are better able to budget for what they can afford.
More than 2,354 people from 47 countries have received treatment and the number is increasing dramatically, its spokesman Won Young-sun said.
Jaseng Hospital of Oriental Medicine, also specializing in spinal diseases, provides all prescriptions in foreign languages. Also, when the patients return to their home country, they send oriental medicine there.
``A growing number of people are interested in Oriental medicine and treatments as they are considered more natural and body-friendly. They are surprised that their disease can be cured not through surgery but rather through the application of acupuncture and medicines,'' its spokesman Park Chan said explaining that patients want to be involved in oriental medicine even after getting conventional treatment and that the hospital had come up with medicine messenger service.
Yesong Voice Clinic is dealing with something that is relatively new to Korea. They refine voices tones and bring renewed confidence to people discouraged by the sound of their voices.
``With our state-of-the-art micro-knife operating system, we deal with the most delicate part of the vocal cords and bring a manly voice to men and womanly voice to woman,'' its spokesman Choi Yong-jun said.
Especially the center specified the standard of having a ``good voice.'' People can have their voice checked to see how it could be improved to be considered ``beautiful'' by others and how they can deal with it.
``The service is far beyond what usual otorhinolaryngologists do and people mostly from Japan visit to check on their voices and refine them. They later say they gained confidence when seeing other people and speaking to them,'' he said.