Despite the fact that I'm perfectly aware that the DR1 forums suffers from nay-sayer-ism, I think it might be interesting to see what DR1ers think about the possible new tourism niche the DR might be carving out in the next few years.
The video is about an hour long and in Spanish, but some of the points exposed in the presentation are:
- 80% of US population that travels for medical purposes, or that have medical issues that can be attended to for less outside the US, live in the eastern states. The DR is less than a 4 hour plane ride from the eastern US and is one of the better connected in terms of flights.
- New private hospitals designed specifically for medical tourism might be built in various places of the DR. The guy mentions Mexico, which receives more than 1 million medical tourists a year, and Costa Rica, which with 3 hospitals geared towards medical tourists is already producing US$800 million a year. He mention that there is aready a private investment of this sort currently in the works for the Punta Cana area.
- DR might be standardizing what is allowed as standard medical practices and might put in place a local certification system, in addition to improving the quality of medical care so that Dominican hospitals can receive favorable accreditation from a developed country, the guy mentioned Canada.
- The guy also enphasizes the need to rank Dominican hospitals, precisely because 'Americans love to rank things.' He even mention how US hospitals are constantly ranked, but that its mostly nonsense because most US hospitals are marginally different from each others, but Americans love that type of stuff.
- He mentions the need to control the 'few bad apples' that due to malpractice affects the entire Dominican medical profession.
- He even says that he met with a few expatriates from Sosua and gave them a questionaire of sorts, and that's how he became aware of the opportunity. He said that Puerto Plata would be ideal for the creation of several elderly care homes (retirement homes), because according to him Dominican hospitality is simply not match by what is offered in elderly assited living in the US. Add to that the lesser costs compared to the US and the opportunity speaks for itself.
He said a lot more things, but that's what the video is for.
So, do you think the DR will become an important player in medical tourism?
What needs to be done in order to make the country successful as a medical destination?
The video was filmed at the Funglode office in Santo Domingo this past February 2015.
[video=youtube;zVwL8NLMbds]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVwL8NLMbds[/video]
The video is about an hour long and in Spanish, but some of the points exposed in the presentation are:
- 80% of US population that travels for medical purposes, or that have medical issues that can be attended to for less outside the US, live in the eastern states. The DR is less than a 4 hour plane ride from the eastern US and is one of the better connected in terms of flights.
- New private hospitals designed specifically for medical tourism might be built in various places of the DR. The guy mentions Mexico, which receives more than 1 million medical tourists a year, and Costa Rica, which with 3 hospitals geared towards medical tourists is already producing US$800 million a year. He mention that there is aready a private investment of this sort currently in the works for the Punta Cana area.
- DR might be standardizing what is allowed as standard medical practices and might put in place a local certification system, in addition to improving the quality of medical care so that Dominican hospitals can receive favorable accreditation from a developed country, the guy mentioned Canada.
- The guy also enphasizes the need to rank Dominican hospitals, precisely because 'Americans love to rank things.' He even mention how US hospitals are constantly ranked, but that its mostly nonsense because most US hospitals are marginally different from each others, but Americans love that type of stuff.
- He mentions the need to control the 'few bad apples' that due to malpractice affects the entire Dominican medical profession.
- He even says that he met with a few expatriates from Sosua and gave them a questionaire of sorts, and that's how he became aware of the opportunity. He said that Puerto Plata would be ideal for the creation of several elderly care homes (retirement homes), because according to him Dominican hospitality is simply not match by what is offered in elderly assited living in the US. Add to that the lesser costs compared to the US and the opportunity speaks for itself.
He said a lot more things, but that's what the video is for.
So, do you think the DR will become an important player in medical tourism?
What needs to be done in order to make the country successful as a medical destination?
The video was filmed at the Funglode office in Santo Domingo this past February 2015.
[video=youtube;zVwL8NLMbds]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVwL8NLMbds[/video]