The thought of medical tourism is a scary prospect for people who assume because a country is foreign, more things can go wrong during a procedure.  If a patient dies on the operating table, what kind of options does the he or she have?  Who does the autopsy?  What about transportation for the remains?  These questions can frighten most people out of choosing surgery abroad.  Yet if more patients, especially in the United States, where the trend is catching on slowly, stopped to consider medical tourist hospitals have almost more at stake in assuring their foreign patients receive the best treatment possible, maybe the concerns about medical tourism would be expunged.  After all, if you do die during surgery or complications arise, it could ruin the reputation of the hospital, and the reputation of global healthcare hospitals is important.  If you do not go home from the hospital satisfied and pleased, you can disseminate harsh critiques about the hospital, the doctors, and the staff: there are numerous medical tourism web sites and forums for people to complain about—or commend—global hospitals.  A large portion of the health industry in other countries come from abroad cliental.  Locations such as the Philippines, India, Thailand, Costa Rica, and Brazil want to provide not just a great surgery but also a great experience: hence the use of spa resorts and hotels for patients to convalesce and recover.  The greatest form of advertising is from a peer group member.  The better medical vacation you obtain, the more likely you are to inform your friends and filial relations of the details, and those people could become possible patients.

Because of various issues with health insurance companies, home hospitals do not always bother with providing the best care possible.  With most patient procedures, it is difficult to get payments paid, to get paperwork done, to get anything done concerning insurance companies.  There is a long wait for just about every protocol.  The hospital wastes much money and effort with such waiting.  Further, there is still a large number of patients going to hospitals in their home nations.  For the US health industry, there is no competition to make it improve.

Yet that is gradually changing due to the threat medical tourism represents: globalization and outsourcing has caught up with the healthcare industry.  Despite the stress and the various irritations dealt with on a plane trip, more and more people have no problem with these issues because it means cheaper healthcare.  Though there is much argument over whether the United States health system is the best, there is little debate regarding how expensive it is, including for those with decent health insurance.

In short, things can go wrong with any surgery anywhere: it can happen in the US and it can happen in India.  It has nothing to do with any kind of shortcomings of a nation.  The top hospitals in each nation of the world still deal with patient deaths.  But with the increase of medical tourism, foreign hospitals maintain a better incentive to not just keep a patient breathing but happy too.  Fears about the inferiority of allegedly third world countries are unfounded.  With the proper research and planning, medical tourism is a great choice.