Hospitals in Flathead County woo Canadian patients
Canadians who don’t want to wait several months for elective or non-emergency surgery are traveling across the border in increasing numbers to Flathead Valley hospitals ready and waiting to deliver expedient care.
Called medical tourism, the rapidly growing practice of traveling across international borders puts North Valley Hospital in Whitefish and Kalispell Regional Medical Center — both less than two hours from the Canadian border — in a good position to cater to Canadians.
Canada provides universal access to health care for its citizens, but with that system comes lengthy wait times for many medical procedures. Canadians with the financial means to pay cash for health care are in many cases willing to do so if it means getting the care they want when they want it.
Over the last 10 months, Kalispell Regional has seen 65 Canadian patients for visits ranging from orthopedic surgery to office consultations, hospital spokesman Jim Oliverson said.
Kalispell Regional offers a concierge service to coordinate care for Canadian patients. In addition to helping patients with pre-operation planning and communications with their physicians, the concierge service arranges housing and travel itineraries, supplies a shuttle service throughout the hospital campus and offers free passes to The Summit Medical Fitness Center.
Oliverson said the hospital’s marketing department has talked about advertising in Canada but generally has relied on word of mouth to serve Canadians who don’t want to wait several months for elective surgery.
Among the most common services requested at Kalispell Regional by Canadians are orthopedic surgery such as hip and knee replacements, rotator cuff surgery and ulnar nerve transpositions; diagnostic imaging including MRI and CT procedures, back surgery, eye surgery, cardiac bypass surgery and catheterization, prostatectomies, laparoscopic hysterectomies and bladder repair.
Catherine Todd, director of marketing for North Valley Hospital, said she’s currently working on a program to increase communication with Canadians who want to cross the border for medical care.
“The whole idea is to capture those elective medical procedure opportunities,” Todd said. “Canadians have to wait such a long time” for many procedures.
The total time residents of Alberta, Canada, wait on average between seeing a general practitioner to receiving treatment by a specialist is 22.1 weeks, Todd said, referring to 2010 data she’s collected. Albertans wait an average of 22 weeks for gynecological surgery, 15.8 weeks for general surgery and 48.6 weeks for orthopedic surgery.
“The wait time depends on the province and the procedure,” Todd said.
Each province develops an acceptable waiting period, “which for us in the U.S. wouldn’t be acceptable,” she added. Even kidney stone removal is considered elective surgery in some provinces.
“Canadian health care won’t pay for elective procedures done outside of a province unless they’re not available or the wait time is beyond what the province has deemed appropriate,” Todd said. “Many Canadians are choosing to pay out of pocket” and travel to the U.S. for their medical procedures.
North Valley Hospital is developing a concierge service for Canadian patients.
In terms of marketing medical tourism, Todd said North Valley is working to get its message to “key influencers” such as Canadian health-care clinics, physicians and medical brokers that help Canadians find health-care service in the United States or elsewhere. Those brokers, Todd said, make sure the health-care facility is reputable for their client and facilitate tasks such as getting medical records sent to the caregiver.
“The key is to let them know we’re here, to create that credibility,” Todd said. “We hope this will be a year-round program, and while the numbers won’t be huge, we hope it stimulates the economy in the off season.”
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com