Factors attracting arab patients to travel for medical services in Thailand

บทคัดย่อ

          The purposes of this research were to study factors attracting Arab patients to medical services and to provide advice on medical service development. The sample in this study was 20 Arab patients who received medical services at an International Hospital in Bangkok as a case study. In-depth interviews were conducted as a part of the qualitative analysis of the study. It was found that when Arab patients sought cures for illnesses, they asked their friends or family members about medical treatment information, and further researched more information on the Internet.  The factors attracting Arab patients to the medical services include - trust in the hospital’s quality of care services, high quality of care once admitted, ensuring the patient’s service with the medical skills of the doctors, nurses, as well as service staff, providing services with compassionate environment for the Arab patients, quick responses from the service providers, as well as ease of access to services, physical facility of the services and service support at reasonable prices. Some guidelines on the development of medical services based on the results are upgrading medical services into specializations, such as comprehensive cancer treatment centers to establish creditability among the Arabs. Other guidelines include applying modern medical technologies for patient treatments, e.g. endoscopic surgery, laser surgery, stem cell treatments, developing quality services through JCI standards, medical professional development, treating patients with kindness and compassion, physical evidence of the service by offering first-class facilities, high quality medical equipment, fast response, and easy access to services. Also, it is important to provide other support services to meet the needs of the Arabs:  applying a lower cost of medical treatment strategies than competitors; promoting marketing activities to gain awareness and recognition among the Arabs; providing membership privileges, use of ads, billboards and banners; utilizing online media services such as Facebook, WhatsApp; delivering exhibition booths in the Arabian countries.