CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1. Conclusion
The qualitative study on decision making by outbound Myanmar medical tourists is conducted by using semi-structured open-ended questionnaire to acquire the insightful information of the reason behind each decisive factors made by the medical tourists rather than collecting the most chosen decisive factors by the medical tourists in term of quantitatively research. Moreover, using this methodology provides new knowledges, information and considerable points beyond the reachable literatures by the researcher.
Regardless of the countable number, the reasons behind each decisive factor by Myanmar medical tourists which included in this study are consistent with the facts and findings stated in the previous literatures. Moreover, it is also found out that slightly mentioned and explained decisive factors in some literature are significantly important for outbound Myanmar medical tourists to make their decision on choosing medical tourism destination. Besides, new meaningful, noticeable, interesting and unexpected decisive factors are also identified from the interview.
According to the structure of the framework and the questionnaire which is designed to study the decision making on choosing destination country and selecting healthcare provider in the chosen country respectively, more than one major decisive factor for the whole decision making process were identified. Furthermore, according to the nature of complex decision making process, it is included more than one decisive factors to make the final decision according to the collected data. From which, the most relevant and influential decisive factors for each participant were identified, analyzed and discussed.
According to the findings and analysis, most of the participants clearly expressed the decisive factors to the choice of destination country and healthcare
provider, but only very few of them answered that they have only one main factor to make their decision regarding to the whole decision making.
As to conclude the overall findings, traveling convenience is significantly influenced the decision making of the participants in which the participants put into a consideration for the fact “if in case of emergency”. Following this factor, quality of care, availability of medical facilities and physician training take part in decision making overwhelmingly. These three factors together reflect the quality of the product which is “healthcare quality” for the patients where only one factor is not enough to make a decision even though each single quality-related factors are main decisive factors for the participants respectively. There is a situation of comparing between the availability of the facilities and the quality of the physician or between the quality of care provided by the hospital and the availability of the medical facilities in that hospital.
Communication barrier is also mostly mentioned as considerable factor and for this reasons, the participants tend to choose the healthcare provider which can provide language assistance for proper and better communication with the care giver.
On expressing the communication, the communication at the hospital is largely concerned than communication as a daily basic outside the hospital. It also determines the level of satisfaction regarding to the service of the healthcare provider.
From the marketing perspective, presence of representative offices within the country is one of the advantages for the medical tourism countries to attract potential customers more effectively. Apart from their existence, a wide variety of medical and additional non-medical services provided by these offices can maximize the probability of choosing their hospitals.
Based on the findings of the study, the decision making of the participants is highly influenced by the information perceived from their experienced friends, family members and their attending physicians. According to the nature of the country, searching required information through internet websites or blogs or online sources are not widely used within the county and are regarded as unreliable information compared to what they got from their friends, family members and professional advises such as their attending local physicians. Word-of-mouth spreading whether good or bad information is frighteningly influenced any other sources of information. The
recommendations from those who well-experienced the services or this industry is largely influenced on the decision making of the participants.
To summarize the findings, among the factors stated in the research framework, traveling distance is the most decisive factor for Myanmar medical tourists and it is a competitive advantage for those medical tourism countries nearby such as Thailand and Singapore. Then it is followed by quality of care and services, physician training, the availability of medical facilities and services as second, third and fourth most decisive factors for Myanmar Medical tourism accordingly. It indicates that the quality and credibility of perceiving healthcare is very important and most influential factor for Myanmar medical tourists on their decision making. This reflects the actual healthcare situation within the country as well because most of Myanmar medical travelers are seeking qualified and standardized healthcare overseas regardless of very expensive healthcare expenses in the destination countries even though cost effective is the most important decisive factor for developed world such as U.S, U.K or Canada according to previous studies and literatures.
Apart from the product quality which is “healthcare”, the safety and the service assistance such as hospital representative offices are the important decisive factors for Myanmar medical tourists. Language assistance such as provision of medical interpreters favors the decision making by Myanmar medical tourists to choose their healthcare provider. Cost effectiveness is not significantly important for Myanmar medical tourist to choose the healthcare provider but considerable to compare different healthcare providers. Moreover, the reliable sources of information on perceived quality of healthcare provider such as recommendation, suggestion and experiences sharing by close friends, relatives and local physicians also takes part in decision making process.
Other important decisive factors include cultural distance in term of social values and religion, and presence of familiar faces in the destination country as a psychological factor or as a requirement to avoid possible risks during their stay, which are found to be not significantly influenced on decision making by Myanmar medical tourists.