Medical tourism has emerged as a promising new business in the healthcare industry. The government has strived to develop the medical tourism industry through a revision of medical laws and the development of medical tourism complexes. Many foreigners visit South Korea due to its high medical technology, so a lot of manpower is needed to help them. Medical tour coordinator is an important job in medical tourism.
Work
Medical tour coordinators help communication with foreign patients and help them to receive medical treatment. They also promote medical procedures to foreigners and look after them when they finish treatment or if they have a problem. In addition, they are responsible for administrative services, for example, medical tourism marketing, consulting, and complaint management, as well as specific medical services and planning foreign patients’ itinerary in Korea. Medical tour coordinators also offer follow-up services when foreign patients go back to their countries.
Qualifications
To become a medical tour coordinator, you must pass a national certification exam conducted by the Human Resources Development Service of Korea. To take the exam, you must submit an official language score with more than 700 in TOEIC and more than 71 in IBT TOEFL. In addition, you must get a related certificate, for example, medical certificate, convention planner I or II, nursing certificate, or tourism and interpretation certificate. If your major is not in healthcare or tourism, you need 2 years practical experience after graduating from university and 4 years after graduating from college. There are written exams in 5 fields: health and medical tourism administration, healthcare service support and management, health and medical tourism marketing, tourist service support and management, and understanding medical terminology and diseases, and a practical exam. If you want to pass the exam, you must score more than 40 points per field in the written test and more than 60 points in the practical test.
Prospects
Since the revision of the Medical Services Act. The medical tourism industry has grown at an average annual rate of 37.3% according to a report by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Accordingly, the demand for related workers has increased. In addition, a medical tour coordinator can also enter government agencies and travel agencies as well as hospitals. Therefore, the role of a medical tour coordinator will become bigger and a medical tour coordinator will have more opportunities.
