Concierge - Good or Bad Idea?
A recent article on the ABC news website highlighted the growing popularity of the concierge service in The US.
As most of us who have researched plastic surgery abroad know, this is a very popular business among the “medical tourism” communities. Companies such as Plenitas in Argentina, Plastic Surgery Travel in Costa Rica , and Mexican Cosmetic Surgery in Mexico all charge for their referral services.
On one side, I think a consultant is a good idea if you don’t have the time to research and have the extra money to fork out the cash.
On the other side, one must really examine who the consultant is and who they are really working for. Sadly, most consultants work for plastic surgeons first, and consumers second. One should take a concierge’s advice as such and weigh it against someone’s real experience with a particular plastic surgeon abroad.
Just like everything else, you have to be concerned about conflict of interest and multiple agendas going on at the same time,” said Cunningham, responding to reports that some consultants may really just be working for a handful of doctors. “There are no regulations that guide them. They really can do whatever they want.”
I think the best referrals will always come from patients. Even a patient’s bad experience can speak volumes about a particular plastic surgeon’s bedside manner or how he /she handles unhappy customers. The best decision will be YOUR decision after you have weighed all your options and done your homework.
Our company Plastic Surgery Travel Costa Rica (Medical Tours International) never charges for our services. Just wanted to have the facts straight.
Our nurses take a 10 week course that includes language studies in medical terminology and the effects of air travel on patients. Many of the Plastic Surgery Travel/MTI nurses are multilingual and all have at least 10 years experience working in acute care specialties in USA hospitals. “Our certification course for our nurses is rigorous,” according to Elise Steffens, MTI’s Director of Clinical Operations. “You have to really love what you do to take it,” says Steffens, one of the course trainers.
The nurses who have passed the certification course for international patient care and now work for Plastic Surgery Travel/Medical Tours International point out that protecting patient from harm is what nurses have always done – now they are just doing it on a larger scale and in six languages.
Medical Tours International began sending patients overseas to safe, affordable health care facilities in January 2002 and to date has sent over 400 patients to Costa Rica alone. The company founder, Stephanie Sulger, is a registered nurse who first heard about the phenomenon of low cost overseas health care in 2001 when she was visiting a recovery facility in Escazu, an upscale area of Costa Rica’s capital city, San Jose.
Sulger says she was struck by the high quality of health care in Costa Rica, but also became very worried by the fact that so many patients hadn’t researched their doctor or hospital before going abroad for surgery. “Patients seem to think that because they get on an airplane and travel to a foreign country for surgery that it isn’t real surgery or that they are somehow immune to complications.”
“Concerns about the lack of information regarding international safety standards, differences in the names and ingredients of foreign medications and other safety issues that can get very complicated when you have non-medical personnel working with, what are sometimes less than healthy traveling patients, resulted in the development of the Plastic Surgery Travel/MTI certification course,” says Sulger.
Plastic Surgery Travel/MTI’s founder points out that Medical Tours International isn’t in the business of convincing anyone to get aboard an airplane and fly for hours to a foreign country for an operation. “It’s obvious that a lot of patients are already doing that” Sulger says. Instead, the MTI nurses are trained to provide a continuous corridor of safe, affordable care to and from qualified doctors and hospitals overseas for these traveling patients.
They do not charge for their services and the doctors and facilities fees are not increased because someone uses Plastic Surgery Travel/MTI.
Rather, the company is paid by the health destination for their preofessional ability to medically assess patients. “Our health destinations pay us to provide them with medically appropriate patients, who are fully informed and well-prepared for their procedure overseas,” Sulger says. Using their extensive experience and evidence-based nursing knowledge the MTI nurses say, “We know that patients who are appropriate, informed and well-prepared are less likely to develop complications.”
Plastic Surgery Travel/Medical Tours International is developing a network of USA MD’s to see patients returning from procedures overseas.
Comment by Stephanie Sulger — Sat, Apr 1st, 2006 @ 2:13 am
Hello,
Like all women and also because I work on a televised news program, looking good is important. I live on the border between the United States and Mexico. As of a couple of months ago, I asked for a plastic surgeon that did good work but did not have outrageous prices like many of the plastic surgeons in the border area are accustomed in charging. Dr. Jaime Rodriguez Sierra was the one that was recommended to me. What I wanted was to improve a little bit on my eyes. I am not so young and my eyelids looked as if they were falling. This gave an appearance of being tired all the time. If that wasn’t enough, I had a fatty abdomen that I couldn’t remove with diet or exercise. I also couldn’t remove the extra fat on my upper back that was created by my brassiere. That is why I got in contact with Dr. Rodriguez and hands to work. I had a consultation with him in his office in Reynosa, Mexico, which is only minutes away from my home in Mission, TX and performed the surgery in Monterrey, which is only two and a half hours away from my home. The surgery did not last long and the service was exceptional, frankly, I was very impressed, not only with the service, but the doctor’s work. I had the surgery on Friday and by Tuesday, I was back at work. His attention to me did not end there, he would check on me until he released me. Now my eyes appear to be wider, and I have been told that I have a softer expression and most importantly, I feel better. In respect to my abdomen and the extra fat on my back, it has all disappeared. Now what I attempt to do is watch my diet and do a little exercise daily. My recommendation is that if by making a change, no matter how small, makes a difference in how we look, why not do it??? And when we deal with experts such as Dr. Rodriguez, we can be well assured that we are in good hands.
Sincerely
Reyna Luna
Comment by Reyna Luna — Fri, Jun 30th, 2006 @ 7:36 am