A successful outcome or result does not always equal a happy customer.

Have you ever arrived at a restaurant and had the host greet you by your name? Or perhaps you have walked in to your hotel room to find a personalized note along with a basket full of your favorite fruit.

Over the past two years GHA leadership has had the opportunity to meet with hospitals and ambulatory clinics across the globe. These many interactions have resulted in valuable learning experiences for the GHA team and have allowed us to better understand the needs and expectations of our potential clients. We felt it would be beneficial this week to include a top 10 list of the most frequently asked questions about the Global Healthcare Accreditation Program.

Informed consent has become one of the primary means for protecting the legal rights of patients and guiding the ethical practice of medicine.

The Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) Program for Medical Travel Services and The American Association for Physician Leadership (AAPL) have announced a strategic partnership to drive change and facilitate continuing education opportunities for tomorrow’s healthcare leaders.

If you’re like most people you probably hate surprises; unless of course, the surprise is an unexpected raise or that dreamed-of birthday gift you never thought you’d get. If you are a patient seeking treatment in another region or country then you certainly don’t want any surprises associated with your treatment or travel.

GHA is pleased to announce that Ms. Karen Timmons, Chairman Emeritus, Former CEO of GHA, has been invited to partcipate in a panel on "The Importance of an International Medical Tourism Accreditation."

If you have paid any attention to GHA’s newsletters and articles over the past 18 months you will have noticed one of the constant themes, if not the primary one, is highlighting strategies to enhance the patient experience across the Medical Travel Care Continuum™.

Recently The Beryl Institute published findings on the patient experience using data obtained in a survey of 2,000 healthcare consumers in five countries.

OneOme, co-founded with Mayo Clinic, announced today that they are partnering with St. Catherine Specialty Hospital, a European Center of Excellence, to bring innovative, actionable pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing to patients.

In a previous article (Pre-screening Traveling Patients: 4 Things You Must Know) we discussed important factors to consider when assessing whether or not a patient is a good candidate for medical travel. In this article we will look at the other end of the spectrum to understand what healthcare providers can do to support continuity of care for medical travelers during and after the discharge process.

The Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) Program for Medical Travel Services recently announced the release of GHA Standards 4.1 for hospitals and ambulatory medical centers with medical travel programs.

At the end of February, Carol Gilmore, GHA surveyor and consultant, and Bill Cook presented three workshops in three of Colombia's most important cities: Bogotá, Medellín and Cali.

This past January, Ms. Karen Timmons and Mr. Bill Cook, GHA's Chief Executive Officer and Director of Business Development respectively, traveled to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, to participate in the Arab Health conference (January 27-31).

The Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) Program for Medical Travel Services is pleased to provide the following recommendations and guidelines specific to medical travel patients. While this information will be helpful for all types of medical travelers, it should be especially beneficial for patients who are paying for their procedure out of pocket and perhaps making many of the medical travel arrangements on their own.

Over the last several years, infections related to medical travel have received increasingly prominent news coverage. Most recently, a number of U.S. and Canadian patients became infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria after undergoing surgery at a hospital in Tijuana, Mexico.

Healthcare providers who are receiving medical travelers and/or international patients (or seeking to) may wonder if it is worth their time, effort and resources to implement an organized medical travel program or international patient department.

The International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), through its accreditation body: The International Society for Quality in Health, External Assessment Association (IEEA), today announced the accreditation of the Medical Tourism Standards of the Global Healthcare Accreditation program.

The International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), through its recently formed accrediting arm, The International Society for Quality in Health Care External Evaluation Association (IEEA), has accredited the Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) Program Standards.

The International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), which is widely known as the ‘accreditor of accreditors’, has accredited Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) through its recently formed accrediting arm.