Limpieza en línea: cómo los sitios web de hospitales con mejores prácticas pueden impulsar el turismo medico

Natàlia Ferrer-Roca; Sílvia Espinosa-Mirabet; Andréa Oliveira

doi:10.25029/od.2022.331.22

Authors

Natàlia Ferrer-Roca Universitat de Girona (Spain)
Sílvia Espinosa-Mirabet Universitat de Girona (Spain) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8304-5882
Andréa Oliveira Universitat de Girona (Spain) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1370-6139

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25029/od.2022.331.22

Keywords:

health communication, medical tourism, public relations, health tourism, strategic communication

Abstract

This study explores how health institutions (i.e. hospitals) communicate through their corporate websites to convey reliability and credibility in order to establish relationships with users in the field of medical travel. The 10 world’s leading medical tourism hospitals have been selected based on the International Medical Travel Quality Alliance (2019) ranking and their strategic online communication analyzed by applying framing theory. Methodologically, a content analysis was conducted of both websites and subsites which aimed specifically at medical tourists. We conclude that hospitals are in an embryonic phase in their communicative management model with their public in the field of medical tourism since they disregard the potential role of public relations. This article provides valuable and helpful information for both tourism and communication practitioners in medical tourism.

Author Biographies

Natàlia Ferrer-Roca, Universitat de Girona (Spain)

Adjunct Lecturer at the Department of Business Administration, Management and Product Design at the University of Girona (UdG), Catalonia. She has a strong international background with a PhD in Media Studies from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand), MA in Communications Policy (Distinction) from Westminster University (London), and a degree in Journalism from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her research focuses on the intersection between media and communication studies, tourism, and destination branding, with special focus on political economy.

Sílvia Espinosa-Mirabet, Universitat de Girona (Spain)

Vice Dean of the Faculty of Tourism of the Degree in Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Girona. With numerous indexed publications, she is a specialist in media history (radio) from a gender perspective. Her research also covers the fields of “Communication”, “Tourism, Health and Communication”, and “Teaching Innovation”, obtaining the first prize (2020) in this field at her university.

Andréa Oliveira, Universitat de Girona (Spain)

Andrea Oliveira is a Serra Hunter Fellow at the Faculty of Tourism, Girona University (UdG), Spain. She has participated in several research projects and the Spanish Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA) accredited her as Senior Professor in Social and Juridical Sciences in recognition of her academic career. With several articles published in prestigious international journals, her research focuses on "Communication and Health", "Public Relations", "Crisis Communication” and “Social Media”.

References

Bardhan, N.R. (2002). Accounts from the Field: A Public Relations Perspective on Global AIDS/HIV. Journal of Health Communication, 7(3), 221-244. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730290088102

Castillo-Esparcia, A., & López-Villafranca, P. (2016). Las estrategias de comunicación de las organizaciones de pacientes con enfermedades raras (ER) en España. Ciência e saúde coletiva, 28(8). http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232015218.19852015

Capriotti, P., Carretón, C., & Castillo, A. (2016). Testing the level of interactivity of institutional websites: From museums 1.0 to museums 2.0. International Journal of Information Management, 36(1), 97-104. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.10.003

Capriotti, P., & Losada-Díaz, J.-C. (2018). Facebook as a dialogic communication tool at the most visited museums of the world. El Profesional de la Información, 27(3), 642-650. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.may.17

Carretón Ballester, Mª.C., & Feliu Albadalejo, Á. (2011). El tratamiento de la epilepsia en la agenda de los medios para una comunicación afirmativa. Revista Internacional de Relaciones Públicas, 1(2), 237-261. http://dx.doi.org/10.5783/RIRP-2-2011-13-237-261

Christ, P. (2007). Internet technologies and trends transforming public relations. Journal of Website Promotion, 1(4), 3-14. https://doi.org/10.1300/J238v01n04_02

Costa-Sánchez, C. (2012). El gabinete de comunicación del hospital. Propuesta teórica y acercamiento a la realidad de los departamentos de comunicación de los hospitales públicos de Galicia. Doxa Comunicación - Revista interdisciplinar de estudios de comunicación y ciencias sociales, 14, 175-197. https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n14a8

Costa-Sánchez, C., & Míguez-González, M.I. (2018). Use of social media for health education and corporate communication of hospitals. El profesional de la información, 27(5), 1145-1154. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.sep.18

Entman, R. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43, 51-58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x

Fernández, Mª.D., & Carretón, Mª.C. (2011). Investigación sobre la estrategia de relaciones públicas para la promoción del turismo alicantino. ICONO, 14(A6), 223-244. ISBN 1697-8293. Madrid (España), Acta VI Congreso Internacional de Investigación y Relaciones Públicas. https://doi.org/10.2436/20.3008.01.117

Fernández-Cavia, J., & Huertas, A. (2014). La gestión de las marcas de destino y de territorio desde la perspectiva de las relaciones públicas. Comunicació: Revista de Recerca i d’Anàlisi, 31(1), 9-26.

Fernández Souto, A.B., Vázquez Gestal, M., & Corbacho Valencia, J.M. (2016). La reputación de España en Europa como eje central en la planificación de la imagen de marca país: El caso de Alemania, Francia y Gran Bretaña. Punto Cero, 21(33).

Ferrer-Roca, N.; Guia, J., & Blasco, D. (2020). Partnerships and the SDGs in a cross-border destination: the case of the Cerdanya Valley. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1847126.

Ferrer-Roca, N., Weston, R., Guia, J., Mihalič, T., Blasco, D., Prats, L., Lawler, M., & Jarratt, D. (2020). Back to the future: challenges of European tourism of tomorrow. Journal of Tourism Futures. https://doi.org/10.1108/JTF-10-2019-0114

González, T., Medina, P., Medina, E., & López, P. (2021). Optimización de la comunicación hospitalaria en redes sociales: Análisis y estrategias de engagement. Hipertext.net Revista Académica sobre Documentación Digital y Comunicación Interactiva, 22, 63-74. https://doi.org/10.31009/hipertext.net.2021.i22.06

Helble, M. (2011). The movement of patients across borders: Challenges and opportunities for public health. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 89(1), 68-72. https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.10.076612

Heras-Pedrosa, C. (2018). Presentation: tourist public relations. Revista Internacional de Relaciones Públicas, 16(8), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.5783/RIRP-16-2018-01-01-04

Huertas, A. (2008). Public relations and tourism: Fighting for the role of public relations in tourism. Public Relations Review, 43(1), 406-08. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2008.07.001

Inci, B., & Sancar, O. (2017). Website marketing communication in health tourism: A content analysis of website attributes of thermal tourism facilities in Turkey. Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management, 5(2), 57-69. https://doi.org/10.17265/2328-2169/2017.04.002

Juan, T., & Yingchuan, W. (2020). Does tourism sports event make residents happier? — Exploring the SWB of Macau residents in the case of Macau Grand Prix. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 0, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/14766825.2019.1711103

Jun, J. (2016). Framing service, benefit and credibility through images and texts: A content analysis of online promotional messages of Korean medical tourism industry. Journal of Health Communication, 31(7), 845-852. https://doi.org/10.1080/104102336.2015.1007553

Kangas, B. (2010). Travelling for medical care in a global world. Medical Anthropology, 29(4), 344-362. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2010.501315

Kelley, E. (2013). WHO patient safety programme, World Health Organization.

Lee, H., Wright, K.B., O´Connor, M., & Wombacher, K. (2014). Framing medical tourism: An analysis of persuasive appeals, risks and benefits, and new media features of medical tourism broker websites. Health Communication, 29(7), 637-645.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2013.794412

Liu, S., Yang, L., Zhang, C., Xiang, Y-T., Liu, Z., & Hu, S. (2020). Online mental health services in China during the COVID-10 outbreak. The Lancet, 7(4), E17-E18. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30077-8

Lu, X., & Zhang, R. (2019). Impact of physician-patient communication in online health communities on patient compliance: Cross-sectional questionnaire study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21(5). doi:10.2196/12891

Luarn, P., Lin, Y.-F., & Chiu, Y.-P. (2015). Influence of Facebook brand-page posts on online engagement, Online Information Review, 39(4), 505-519. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-01-2015-0029

Lunt, N., Mannion, R., & Exworthy, M. (2012). A framework for exploring the policy implications of medical tourism and international patient flows. Social Policy and Administration. https://doi.org/10.111/j.1467-9515.2011.00833.x

MacReady, N. (2007). Developing countries court medical tourists. Lancet, 369, 1849-1859. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60833-2

Marca-Francés, G., Frigola-Reig, J., & Compte-Pujol, M. (2019). Análisis de la comunicación en el paciente crónico hospitalizado y la mejora de su experiencia. El profesional de la información, 28(2), e280221. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2019.mar.21

Marca, G., Frigola-Reig, J., & Menéndez, J. A. (2018). Una aproximación a las medidas resultado de salud desde las relaciones públicas: el ámbito de la experiencia de paciente y la comunicación. Communication Papers, 7(15), 195-212.

Marca, G., Oliveira, A., Matilla, K., & Miranda, T. (2017). El valor de la evaluación de las relaciones públicas y de la comunicación en las organizaciones: el caso de los hospitales del Sistema Nacional de Salud Español. Palabra Clave, 20(2), 506-528. http://dx.doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2017.20.2.9

Más Bleda, A., & Aguillo Caño, I. F. (2015). La web social como nuevo medio de comunicación y evaluación científica. Barcelona: Editorial UOC. Colecciones: EPI Scholar, 2.

Mason, A., & Wright, K. (2011). Framing medical tourism: An examination of appeal, risk, convalescence, accreditation, and interactivity in medical tourism websites. Journal of Health Communication, 16(2), 163-177. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2010.535105

Mason, A., Wright, K., & Bogard, J. (2011). Assessing cultural representations of physician and patient imagery in medical tourism websites. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 25, 163-177.

Medina Aguerrebere, P. (2012). La comunicación hospitalaria 2.0: Un nuevo desafío para la comunicación institucional. Austral Comunicación, 1(2), 189-202. https://doi.org/10.26422/aucom.2012.0102.med

McCombs, M., & Ghanem, S. (2001). The convergence of agenda setting and framing. In: Reese, S., Gandy, O. & Grant, A. (eds). Framing public life. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 67-81.

Mordor Intelligence. (2019). Medical tourism market – Growth, trends and forecast (2019-2024). Mordor Intelligence. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/medical-tourism-market

MTA. (2019). Medical tourism FAQ’s. Medical Tourism Association. https://www.medicaltourismassociation.com/en/medical-tourism-faq-s.html

MTQA. (2019). World’s best hospitals for medical tourists. Medical Travel Quality Alliance. https://worldsbesthospitals.net/

Oliveira, A. (2017). Health in the Portuguese media. An opportunity for public relations? Obra Digital, 13, 119-132.

Oliveira, A., & Huertas, A. (2019). How do destinations use Twitter to recover their images after a terrorist attack? Journal of Destination Marketing and Management, 12, 46-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2019.03.002

Park, H., & Reber, B. (2010). Using Public Relations to Promote Health: A Framing Analysis of Public Relations Strategies Among Health Associations. Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives, 15(1), 39-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730903460534

Santellán, K.A., Palomino, G.P., & Vargas, F.J., (2021), Gestión de la información y comunicación en hospitales públicos: una revisión de liteartura, Sapienza: International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2(1), 283-297. https://doi.org/10.51798/sijis.v2i1.78

Shanghai Declaration. (2016). The Shangai Declaration on promoting health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Geneva, World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/9gchp/shanghai-declaration.pdf?ua=1

Snyder, J., Crooks, V., Kingsbury, P., & Johnston, R. (2011). The 'patient's physician one step removed': The evolving role of medical tourism facilitators. Journal of Medical Ethics, 37, 530-534.

Topler, J.P. (2017). Communication Skills in the Tourism Sector: The Speech Culture of Tour Guides. Tourism Culture & Communication, 17(3), 217-223(7).

Viñarás-Abad, M. (2013). Estrategias de comunicación para generar confianza. Revista Comunicación y Hombre, 9, 59-73.

Weston, R., Guia, J., Mihalič, T., Prats, L., Blasco, D., Ferrer-Roca, N., Lawler, M., & Jarratt, D. (2019). Research for TRAN Committee – European tourism: recent developments and future challenges, European Parliament, Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies, Brussels.

WHO. (2015). Evidence on global medial travel. Organización Mundial de la Salud. https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/93/11/14-146027/en/

WHO. (2018). Facing the future: opportunities and challenges for 21st-century public health in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and the Health 2020 policy framework. Organización Mundial de la Salud. Oficina regional de Europa. http://www.euro.who.int/data/assets/pdf_file/0003/374052/180278-public-health-future-eng.pdf?ua=1

Wineaster, A. (2015). Cultural tourism and poverty alleviation in rural Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 13(3), 208-224. http://dx.doi.org:10.1080/14766825.2014.935387

WTTC. (2019). Travel and tourism continue strong growth above global GDP, World Travel and Tourism Council. https://www.wttc.org/about/media-centre/press-releases/press-releases/2019/travel-tourism-continues-strong-growth-above-global-gdp/