Medical Tourists’ Perspectives on the Quality of Care in Iran Publisher



Khodayarizarnaq R¹ ; Yousefi M² ; Hajizadeh M³ ; Heydari M⁴
Source: Anatolia Published:2021

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the gap between the perceptions and expectations of medical tourists towards the quality of services and assess factors responsible for declining medical tourists’ visits in recent years in the metropolitan city of Tabriz, Iran. A total of 160 self-constructed questionnaires were distributed to medical tourists from the Republic of Azerbaijan. The average Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) between expectations and perceptions of medical tourists towards the quality of service was 0.541 (95% confidence interval: 0.214 to 0.806), suggesting only a sufficient level of agreement between expectations and perceptions of services. Increasing costs and lack of a follow-up plan for discharged patients were the key contributors to the decline in the number of medical tourists’ visits. © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.