Profile of adult foreign patients seen at the emergency room, Manila Doctors Hospital and their level of satisfaction from January 2008 to December 2009

ABSTRACT

To describe the profile of adult foreign patients seen at the Emergency Room, Manila Doctors Hospital from January 2008 to December 2009 and their level of satisfaction. Background: Medical tourism is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly growing practice of traveling across international boarders to obtain health care. The Philippines is one of a few countries that send qualified physicians and dentists to the US, a testament to its quality of medical education. Procedures can be performed at a fraction of the amount that a patient would spend on the same procedure in the US or Europe. Method: This is a descriptive study done in the Department of Emergency Medicine of a tertiary hospital. All adult foreign patients who consulted at the E.R. were given survey questionnaires to answer prior to discharge. Answers of the patients to the items in the questionnaires were collected and described. Results: In terms of the number of consultations at the Emergency Medicine, the most common nationalities of foreign patients are Asians, specifically, Koreans, Chinese and Japanese in that order. Americans and Saudi Arabians immediately follow. Most of the subjects learned about Manila Doctors Hospital thru their friends, some were referred by hotels, agencies and former patients. The subjects were satisfied with courteous and prompt services given to them by the E.R. staff; they were attended to in less than 30 minutes. Most patients find the cost of medical services reasonable. They felt safe inside the hospital. There is a good level of satisfaction among foreign adult patients consulting at the DEM. Conclusion: Among all patients who were included in the study, Koreans rank as top foreign adult patients consulting at the DEM. Overall, patients were satisfied with the medical services rendered to them by the E.R. staff.