Health Tourism Association VP recommends international accreditations to strengthen service quality

• Communication and crisis management strategist Amelia Reyes Mora highlighted the importance of continuing to raise the quality of our health services to strengthen our country’s reputation as a destination of choice.

Santo Domingo. – With the aim of ensuring best practices in healthcare, the vice president of the Dominican Health Tourism Association (ADTS), Amelia Reyes Mora, called on specialists and health centres to seek accreditations that raise quality and safety standards, fostering good outcomes and a positive experience for health tourists and the general population.

Speaking at the 12th Congress on Empathetic and Effective Communication held by the World Tourism Journalism Organisation (OMPT), she said that the Dominican Republic is the leading medical tourism country in the Caribbean, second in Latin America and 19th in the world, according to the Medical Tourism Index ranking.

As the main factors influencing health tourism decisions, Reyes Mora, who is also president of AF Comunicación Estratégica, cited the quality and cost of medical services, the technological level of procedures, equipment and privacy, as well as “the costs of transport, accommodation, waiting times, medicines and additional services, in addition to the cultural environment and safety of the destination”.

At the event, which brought together journalists of more than 10 nationalities, Reyes Mora shared details of the leading medical tourism event in Central America and the Caribbean, the “6th International Congress on Health and Wellness Tourism”, to be held on 1 and 2 November this year at the JW Marriott Hotel in Santo Domingo.

Reyes Mora also noted that the main centres driving medical tourism in the country are located in Santo Domingo, Punta Cana, Santiago, Puerto Plata and La Romana, citing as examples HOMS, Espaillat Cabral, Centro Médico Punta Cana and Hospital IMG, among other Dominican institutions that have already received international accreditations.

At the same event, the communication and crisis management expert represented the Dominican Republic on the panel “Country experience in crisis management from tourism journalism” alongside Maye Padilla of Mexico, Hernán Couste of Honduras and Felipe Espinosa of Argentina. She analysed a chance event, apparently with no potential for future connection, that caused one of the most painful crises for the country, and stressed the importance of anticipating, being prepared with a crisis management protocol and communicating in a timely manner.

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