Sustainable medical tourism: Investigating health-care travel in Indonesia and Malaysia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Medical tourism has developed rapidly and international health care has become a global industry. Indonesia has a great opportunity in the field of medical tourism, but Malaysia still ranks more highly in credibility by domestic and foreign residents in checking their health. The purpose of this study is to identify potential development of medical services with the concept of medical tourism in Indonesia by comparing with Malaysia. This study uses combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. In the initial stage, an explorative quantitative study was conducted and processed using factor analysis. Respondents consisted of 200 patients both from Indonesia and Malaysia who had studied medical tourism. To identify obstacles and solutions in implementing medical tourism-based medical services, researchers used descriptive qualitative research, in-depth interviews are conducted to obtain more detailed information, involving 11 informants from both the medical providers (general practitioners, specialist doctors, nurses, Indonesian Doctors Association Management, Health Services) and patients. The results showed that the perception of patients using health services regarding medical tourism services based on medical tourism in Indonesia and Malaysia demonstrates: trust, communication interactions, excellent service, affordable medical costs, modern medical technology, holistic service, increased patient expectations, short distances, and an Interesting Tourism object.