Experiences of oncology healthcare personnel in international medical service quality: a phenomenological study

Background: With the globalization of medical services on the rise, Asia has ascended to a destination of choice for its high-quality medical services at very reasonable rates. Monitoring the quality of the international medical industry is vital to maintain service demand. The experiences of healthcare personnel (HCP) involved in international medical services (IMS) regarding the provision of services to international cancer patients have not yet been discussed. This study aimed to explore oncology HCP experiences of IMS quality in caring for international cancer patients in Taiwan.

Methods: Descriptive phenomenological method and were analyzed through Colaizzi's seven-step approach. In this study, 19 respondents were collected data by using in-depth semi-structured interviews. An average interview lasted approximately 45 min.

Results: Four major themes were identified from the interviews: patient selection, psycho-oncology care, predicaments, and promoting suggestions. Additionally, thirteen subthemes emerged, including necessary selection of patients, reasons for unwillingness to enroll international patients, helpless patients, emotional distress, care with warmth, insufficient manpower, an unfair reward mechanism, poor hardware equipment, the predicaments of oncology care, various publicity strategies, one-on-one service model, design of a designated area, and reasonable benefit distribution.

Conclusions: This study explored oncology HCP experiences of IMS quality in caring for international cancer patients, with implications for hospitals in developing high-quality IMS. Due to the fact that IMS is a global trend, HCPs, administrators, and policy-makers are advised to improve the quality of IMS in the oncology department, which has been the least studied field in IMS quality.