Accommodating Cultural Differences in Medical Tourism

Medical Tourism Facilitator, Mario Marinov, acts as a patient advocate for Italian dental tourists

Several years ago I worked as an export manager in a Croatian company and had the opportunity to become familiar with different cultures, traditions and specifics of different markets.

In the early stages of medical tourism in Croatia, we recognized the wide variety of inquiries, approaches and ways of communicating with our patients.

Different patients from different countries come to us (and they come to us from all around the world); and in some ways the origin of the patient pre-defines the way of communication.  One of the great advantages of my job, and things that provide great pleasure to me, is to meet new people, new cultures, and new customs.

As much as some ordinary situations may be predictable and we are ready for them, here we have to mention an anecdote with an Italian family which is a good example of an exception to the ordinary.

As much as we share a similar temperament and way of life (after all, we are Mediterranean countries), some situations can always surprise you.

Simply speaking, in their case the only rule is that there is no rule and that you must be ready to improvise in unlimited quantities. This is particularly true with less demanding procedures (dental treatments).

That weekend, in late November last year, we were waiting for the Lazzaro family from Rimini.  We have made an appointment for them with our dentist Dr. Milardovic for dental implants procedure for the weekend.

Since it is fairly simple to come from Italy to Croatia by ferry, patients from Italy find such weekend medical arrangements to be very convenient for them.  And of course all this would not have gone without any surprises.  The Lazzaro family took care of that.  Long story short, the Lazzaro family arrived with their relatives … J instead of two there was a total of six impatience patients.

Transfers, hotel accommodation, agreed terms …. the original concept fell apart in seconds.  On the other hand, experience has taught us that every problem has a solution, and we activated Plan B – with additional dentists from our network and Dr. Milardovic, we were able to accommodate the needs of the extended Lazzaro family to everybody’s pleasure.

Finally, the sense of satisfaction was great.

A confirmation that we are on the right path was the booking we received for next weekend.  Friends of the Lazzaro family made an appointment based on their recommendation.