Assessment of Compliance of Medical Tourists Host Hospitals in Shiraz with Global Criteria

Medical tourism as a growing industry contributes to GDP growth and employment, and improves infrastructure in the country. Hospitals compliance with global criteria would undoubtedly increase the quality of therapeutic services for medical tourists. Hence, this study was conducted to evaluate the compliance of hospitals of Shiraz hosting medical tourists with global criteria.

This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in six hospitals with medical tourism units in Shiraz in 2018. Data were collected through a researcher-made checklist containing 48 questions with 6 dimensions. Data were analyzed using Spearman's correlation coefficient by SPSS version 22.

The examined hospitals were compliant with global criteria in terms of infrastructure facilities, quality of health services, and human resources management. In terms of accreditation and welfare dimensions, 3 hospitals matched with global criteria. However, none of the hospitals matched with global criteria of medical tourism services dimension. There was a significant correlation between the number of active beds and welfare services (P=0.00).

According to the relative compliance of Shiraz hospitals with global criteria for admission of medical tourists, it is necessary to pay attention to welfare and medical tourism services in order to develop medical tourism in Shiraz.