Understanding friends and family members' experiences of going abroad with medical tourists

Abstract

When patients privately obtain a medical procedure abroad they are engaging in medical tourism. Friends and family members often accompany medical tourists abroad to provide care, and are herein referred to as caregiver-companions. This thesis provides a broad understanding of caregiver-companions from an industry perspective. Interviews were conducted with medical tourism facility staff members who interact closely with caregiver-companions: International Patient Coordinators (IPCs). Twenty-one IPCs who work in nine countries were interviewed. Thematic analysis of these interviews resulted two analyses. The first examines the care roles taken on by caregiver-companions. The second examines the challenges that informal caregiving in medical tourism can present to medical tourists, facility staff, and caregiver-companions themselves. This thesis concludes that while caregiver-companions provide valuable care to medical tourists, with assistance from IPCs, they are not fully incorporated as caregivers in the medical tourism industry.