A Dual Methodology for Evaluating Medical Tourism Websites

Hospital websites serve as crucial entry points for medical tourists seeking health information and services. This study introduces a comprehensive method for evaluating the quality of hospital websites by combining WebMedQual and Ad-hoc Codebook models. Based on a case study, the WebMedQual measurement results indicate a need to improve the quality of information on websites of both commercial and public hospitals. The Ad-hoc Codebook results, on the other hand, show that private hospitals are better equipped for medical tourism than their public counterparts. These findings highlight the disparity in online information quality and the different levels of medical tourism readiness among different hospital types. Healthcare providers, policymakers, and related stakeholders can use this evaluation method to improve their online profiles and better cater to medical tourists.