HPP Saúde wins “e-Health” category on Hospital of the Future Awards

9-Jul-2010

Due to its location in one of the country’s busiest tourist areas, which represents close to 2% of the totality of global tourism offer on the Mediterranean Basin, the Hospitals of HPP Saúde in the Algarve (Hospital Santa Maria in Faro and Hospital São Gonçalo in Lagos) provide healthcare to foreign Clients for over ten years.

Allied to this experience in treating foreign Clients in the Algarve region, HPP Saúde provides a complementary range of service offer across the country, with Hospital da Boavista, Hospital da Misericórdia in Sangalhos, Hospital dos Lusíadas, which allows a more integrated response on what concerns medical specialties.

The bet on Medical Tourism follows a tradition of treating people from other countries, but also allows the following of a growing trend of search for cross border quality healthcare (out of the home country) – a market that already accounts for 8 billion Euros on a European level.

The reason why HPP Saúde applied for the Hospital of the Future Award on “e-Health” category was the launching, in 2009, of an international business area supported digitally - www.algarvemedicaltourism.com – which came to reinforce the competence and ability of HPP Saúde Group on treating tourists in the Algarve, but could also specifically promote the treatment of European citizens who choose to perform their surgery in this region, travelling here for that purpose.

Internationally, www.algarvemedicaltourism.com is a pioneer website. Not only is it the first portal created in Portugal to present the concept of “surgical holidays”, where users may book medical services online (32 procedures on different medical specialties), obtain information about the required surgical procedure on what regards symptoms, description, indications, risk, side-effects, post operative care, length of stay and other relevant information from each specialty, but also allows to book your post operative stay online.

One of the most innovative areas of this project is about the creation of a Client Area and its integration on Google Health. This innovation allows the client to register on the website, create a personal and private page, where he/she may record data concerning his/her health conditions, as well as upload exams and medical reports which may help the online interaction with the HPP Saúde Physician during the pre operative process.

“We have a monthly register of about 28.000 visitors and 150 budget requests on our website. This business area currently represents for Hospital Santa Maria in Faro and Hospital São Gonçalo in Lagos a significant income growth, about 20%.

Thus, it is a great pride to win the Hospital of the Future Award on “e-Health” category and receive recognition for the pioneer work we have been developing on this integrated online platform, which opens up our network to a truly international universe, being mostly a bet and a reinforcement of the quality we provide in our hospitals everyday”, states Paulo Neves, HPP Saúde Algarve Administrator.