Medical tourism: focusing on patients’ prior, current, and post experience

Soonae Hwang (), DonHee Lee () and Chang-Yuil Kang ()
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Soonae Hwang: Busan Women’s college
DonHee Lee: Inha University
Chang-Yuil Kang: Daejeon Institute of Science and Technology

International Journal of Quality Innovation, 2018, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-22

Abstract: Abstract This study empirically examines the effects of medical tourists’ experience of the decision-making process through a patient’s prior, actual, and post experience after having received the medical services. The research model and associated hypotheses were tested using a structural equation modeling based on data collected from 188 medical tourists who received care in Busan, South Korea. The findings of the study indicate that patients’ experience in medical tourism pre-search (reputation, searching information, and communication) has a partially positive effect on their experience (costs, care quality, and supporting system and/or information) and patients’ current experience during the medical tour process has a positive effect on post-experience (relationship building, recommendation, and feedback). The results of this study provide new insights about how key players (e.g., hospitals, medical travel agencies, hotels, and the medical tourists themselves) in medical tourism can effectively help managers identify medical tourists’ needs based on the decision-making process of prior, current, and post-experience of medical tourists.

Keywords: Medical tourism; Prior-current-post experience; Medical tourists; Decision-making process; South Korea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1186/s40887-018-0024-2

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