92 Business View Caribbean - January 2015
“It’s all about not only providing quality of care, but be-
ing able to document that you are providing the quality
of care, so that becomes critical to us,” he said. “We’re
also a little different in the medical tourism industry
in that we want to be able to involve patients before
they ever leave home, to talk about why they’re com-
ing, what they’re coming for and to make sure we meet
their expectations.
“And then we’ll follow them up for a period of time to
make sure there aren’t any needs once they go home.
I don’t like the concept that some international sites
are taking, where you fly in, you have surgery and you
fly home, and then you’re on your own. If you get a
complication and you go to a local doctor, they don’t
want to touch you because they don’t know what hap-
pened internationally.
“I don’t want us to be like that.”
The dedication to medical tourism, though, isn’t solely
about medicine.
Because the Bahamas is a small country (covering
slightly more than 5,000 square miles) with a small
population (home to less than 400,000 residents), the
hospital system will perpetually be saddled with empty
beds. If the range for patients is expanded beyond the
island nation’s borders, however, the hospital system
will be better able to compete in the local market in
which healthcare is free.
“To expand our local market would be very difficult for
us,” Rassin said. “They come to us for quality care,
which is fine. But if I can get into the international mar-
ket, then we can expand our business. That’s really
why we’ve gotten into the (medical tourism) business,
so we can expand as a company.”
HEALTHCARE
