QUALITY MARKERS IN MEDICAL TOURISM: INTEGRATION OF RUSSIAN AND INTERNATIONAL APPROACHES

Lazarev Evgeny N., Maltseva Yulia А., Klimin Vladimir G.

Inbound medical tourism shows positive growth prospects, however, due to the lack of institutionalization of this phenomenon, a number of problems remain that hinder its development. Thus, the lack of accessible and understandable quality markers for medical tourists and a comprehensive model for evaluating medical tourism, which allows operationalizing measurement, limits the effectiveness of attracting foreign patients to Russian clinics and significantly complicates their choice. The above has led to the purpose of the study - to identify priority groups of markers of the quality of integrated services for the development of inbound medical tourism in Russia within the framework of the integrated model concept. Based on the analysis of the regulatory framework of the Russian Federation, Russian and foreign studies and quality assessment models, and a survey of representatives of medical tourism agencies, the concept of an integrated model is proposed, which includes 4 enlarged groups of markers – «clinical», «service», «organizational» and «cultural», consisting of analytical blocks. The results obtained require further validation and expert discussion, and at the same time, may be the basis for the development of a national quality index in medical tourism.

Keywords:medical tourism, inbound medical tourism, quality of medical services, quality markers, integrated service, quality model