Exploring Internal Benefits of Medical Tourism Facilitators' Satisfaction: Customer Orientation, Job Satisfaction, and Work Performance.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This study examined the impact of employee satisfaction with management and coworkers on their performance as medical tourism facilitators. The proposed hypotheses were tested with structural equation modeling based on data collected from major hospitals in South Korea. Results supported assumptions that satisfaction with management is positively correlated with customer orientation and job satisfaction of medical tourism facilitators, as well as with the assumption that satisfaction with coworkers has a direct impact on customer orientation. This study has practical implications as organizations develop effective internal marketing (i.e., communication) strategies to improve the performance of medical tourism facilitators.

The role of pelvic exenteration and reconstruction for treatment of advanced or recurrent gynecologic malignancies: Analysis of risk factors predicting recurrence and survival.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pelvic exenteration offers the last chance of cure for some advanced or recurrent gynecologic malignancy patients. The aim of this prospective study was to analyze factors associated with recurrence and survival after pelvic exenteration. METHODS: Forty-six women with advanced or recurrent gynecologic malignancies were enrolled between July 2001 and February 2006. All pelvic exenteration surgery was performed by the same gynecological oncologist. RESULTS: Two patients were excluded due to the discovery of peritoneal disease during surgery. Multivariate analysis showed that a tumor size >4 cm was the only factor associated with risk of recurrence after surgery (P = 0.014), that margin status was the only factor associated with disease-free survival (P = 0.0.047), and that margin status and lymph node metastasis were associated with overall survival (P = 0.017 and 0.012, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Pelvic exenteration and reconstruction was found to have a potential to provide long-term survival without postoperative mortality although the morbidity rate is somewhat high. Multivariate analysis showed that tumor size >4 cm was a predictive factor for recurrence, and that margin status and lymph node metastasis were predictive factors for survival.