Medical health care tourism: Why patients go overseas and what nurse practitioners need to know

Over the past two decades the number of individuals traveling abroad for the purpose of obtaining health care has increased. There are multiple reasons why they decide to travel far distances. The most common reasons are lack of health insurance, not enough health insurance, high costs, inaccessibility, and unfamiliar language and culture. The purpose of this paper was to discuss the reasons why people would seek health care overseas and the issues that nurse practitioners need to be aware of when dealing with patients who are considering medical tourism or have traveled abroad for medical treatment and surgical procedures. These individuals have diverse backgrounds; the common denominator is their belief that they can obtain health care in another country that is more affordable, more accessible, and/or comparable or better quality. Nurse practitioners are responsible for patients' overall well-being. They are obligated to educate their patients about the risks and benefits of medical tourism and assist them in making a decision that best suits their health care goals. Some concerns that nurse practitioners may have when treating a patient who has traveled overseas for healthcare are postoperative complications, polypharmacy, drug–drug interactions, drug resistance, and malpractice liability. Although there are several resources practitioners can refer their patients to in order to learn more about medical tourism, practitioners are encouraged to work closely with their patients to maintain the health and safety of patients as well as protecting themselves from liability.