Outsourcing Your Health - Just What the Doctor Ordered!

As we all know, the practice of outsourcing is rapidly filtering into all aspect of business and life. Over the last few weeks, my wife and I personally experienced the great benefit in "Outsourcing your Health". My wife had been quite ill for a number of weeks and our Doctor (in Canada) had run a bunch of the standard tests and everything was checking out normal. He had referred my wife to see a specialist, but given the dynamic of the Universal Medical Care system in Canada, my wife was going to wait for two-three months to even get an initial consult with a specialist.

Now, since there are really no private clinics in Canada, we pondered the possiblity of heading to the States to see a specialist, but of course the sheer cost of medical care in the US is astronomical (if you are uninsured). So, dealing with time lags in Canada and not willing to incur the great expense to go the States, we started to explore other options. My wife’s brother and family who live year round in Thailand then told us about a world-class Private Hospital, called Bumrungrad. At first we were a little skeptical, but once we checked out the site and started to review the different articles in Time, Forbes and a Wall Journal Publication that referenced this hospital as well as other world class hospitals in Asia and India, we decided to head to Thailand!

My wife and her mom spent a week in Thailand and provided us (back home) with daily updates on their experience at the Bumrungrad hospital. They said that the sophistication, organization and service of the hospital was like nothing they had ever experienced. They were so very efficient, accomodating, not to mention thorough in all their examinations and tests. In a span of about three days, my wife had received a full health screening, CT scan and a number of other procedures to help pinpoint the particular problem she was experiencing. Sure enough, they found the particular issue, provided some medication and her condition has begun to improve.

So, after being sick for many weeks, in a span of just a few days, my wife had flown to Thailand, received a diagnosis and treatment and started to feel better by the end of the week. To have the procedures and tests she had in Canada would have taken months on waiting list to get in and big bucks in the States.

In mentioning our experience to an "older relative", their comment was, "She went to a 3rd world country to see a Doctor?" Isn’t that the irony? The  highly qualified pool of medical professionals overseas continues to grow at a meteoric pace. It seems at least in Canada, that our system is being left behind. While there is certainly some good points about our medical system, the limitations will certainly cause more and more people seek other medical options overseas. Outsourcing Your Health may not be for everyone, but it is certainly becoming a more attractive option in this "Flat World" we find ourselves in!

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