Hospitals around the world are pushing outside their borders looking for new global patients.
Take the example of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., which has crafted marketing contracts all over the world including third world countries where medical expertise is desperately needed.
Hopkins treated 610 foreign patients in 1994 and has nearly tripled that number this year. While Johns Hopkins markets to almost all foreign countries --Latin America and Asia are tops on its list as healthcare is scarce there while wealthy patients are not.
"Foreign patients are not new for us but aggressive marketing is," said John Hutchins, director of international services at Johns Hopkins. For example to better implement its overseas ambitions, Johns Hopkins has opened a marketing office near Embassy Row in Washington D.C. that wines and dines embassy people.
Another Washington. D.C. hospital, the Washington Hospital Center, has set up suites suited for its rich, overseas clientele. The suites run about $10,000 a day and are lavish, hotel style hospital rooms.
"The initiative has been very successful for us," said Margory Huge, Washington Hospital Center communications director. "Foreign patients pay in cash -it is very lucrative."
But hospitals in the U.S. are not the only ones in London, a leading National Health Service (NHS) hospital sent a team of marketers to Turkey in search of patients.
Britain's foremost cancer center, the Royal Marsden, joined three private hospitals on a sales trip to Istanbul.
It is the first time an NHS hospital has done direct marketing overseas. Thousands of pounds were spent on local advertising for the event, which was held at a five-star hotel in the Turkish capital of Istanbul.
Alongside hospitals offering treatments for stress and anorexia, a Royal Marsden conference booth extolled the virtues of its cancer treatment services.
The sales trip was organized by freelance conference organizer Valerie Smallwood, who mounted a similar event for English public schools in Istanbul this year which attracted more than 500 visitors.
The Royal Marsden stand offered a selection of glossy brochures in the Turkish language. Among the advantages outlined was "a variety of high-grade accommodation for patients, including single, two, three and four-bedded rooms, many with en-suite facilities".
The Marsden has a private wing and accommodation which can be used by families of both private and NHS patients. The medical and operating facilities are shared between the NHS and private patients.
Smallwood said she wrote to 100 private and NHS hospitals throughout the country, inviting them to take part, and plans more sales trips.
Cancer care is extremely expensive with a course of treatment lasting up to six months and costing between $50,000 and $100,000. The Royal Marsden's marketing targets only the most wealthy Turkish families.
Nicky Brown, the Marsden's private patients manager, who manned the hospital's stand, said the income from private patients will be used to improve the treatment of NHS patients.
"Like Coca-Cola, the Royal Marsden is a very powerful brand. It is synonymous with cancer treatment," said Brown.
The hospital, based in South Kensington, West London, and Sutton in Surrey, has taken the initiative because of a threatened loss of income from patients signed up to Bupa, the country's biggest private health scheme.
Bupa recently introduced new contracts designed to send patients to private hospitals, where it has negotiated big discounts. The result has been to take people away from the NHS private wards.
"It will clearly help if we can bring in patients from Turkey to fill the gap," said Brown. (Johns Hopkins Hospital 410/955-5000; Washington Hospital Center; 202/877-7000; Royal Marsden 44/171/765-7600)