Gloriana Gomez is a surveyor and consultant for the Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) Program. As former Director of Operations and Patient Coordinator Supervisor for Medical Tours Costa Rica (MTCR), based in Clinica Biblica Hospital and CIMA Hospital, Gloriana has nearly a decade of experience coordinating care for thousands of traveling patients, as well as for patients from U.S. self-funded employers and facilitators.
In 2010/11 she supervised the logistics and care for the CCSVI program, where hundreds of patients (many with limited mobility) and companions traveled to Costa Rica for a procedure that required complex care coordination during the pre and post-op phases. The tremendous success of the program was due to the unique approach to patient care, companion service and medical travel destination experience.
Because of Gloriana’s outstanding management and customer service skills, she was assigned to direct the coordination of care for MTCR´s program for self-insured companies, specializing in bariatric, gynecological, neuro and orthopedic surgeries, as well as dental treatments. Gloriana has been key in setting up an interdisciplinary patient process that exceeds the high standards employers seek before sending their employees overseas for care, and is a big reason for the success and continuous growth of this program. She was also key in developing protocols,optimization tools and continuous training sessions that have made difference in Costa Rica being a preferred medical tourism destination for corporate clients.
Medical Tours Costa Rica’s growth required recruiting more customer service staff as well as nursing personnel to comply with the corporate clientele. As Operations Manager, her role involved optimizing every touch point in the patient experience, from pre-travel coordination alongside the corporate facilitator and on-site medical staff. A detailed oriented hospitality service streamline was set up, from supervised menu to appropriate accommodations, and top of the line transfer services. An approved discharge system was established on every clinical and hospital environment, assessing that the necessary reports ,indications and follow up for each case would be met back in their home country. All while overseeing the customer’s main interest, the medical treatment outcome.
During Gloriana’s time at MTCR, she focused much of her time instructing medical and hospitality staff on strategies for delivering an outstanding patient experience. Her extensive experience and skills managing international patients, have opened the door for her to work as a surveyor and instructor respectively, for the Medical Tourism Association’s former International Patient Services Certification (IPSC) and the Certified Medical Travel Professional (CMTP) programs in Mexico, El Salvador, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.