Carola Kolbe

Medical Tourists in Austria: Motivation, Expectation and Perceived Service Quality Carola Kolbe

This book will deal with medical tourism in Austria, focusing on consumer expectations and to what extent these are fulfilled. It includes a concise history of the Austrian health care system, as well as the economic, social, cultural, ethical and legitimate matters and aspects. The study strives to find out whether the expectations of medical tourists in Austria, concerning patient service, are fulfilled or not. The focus of this paper lies solely on Austria, because medical tourism has only become popular here in the past few years; unlike in other European countries, such as Germany, that lie ahead in the field of medical tourism. Since this topic is up-and- coming in Austria, due to globalization of the health care market, the main concern of this thesis is to identify the factors in which Austria is succeeding in terms of patient service and to what extent patients profit from this service. In addition to the literature review, interviews among various doctors treating medical patients from abroad as well as a patient survey will allow insights to the medical tourism situation in Austria. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of medical tourism in Austria, and to what extent patient service successfully is attained.