Understanding Medical Tourists’ Perception of Private Hospital Service Quality in Penang Island

Medical tourism is one of the most successful types of tourism in Penang Island. Traveling beyond borders to obtain medical treatments is referred to as medical tourism. The purpose of this paper is to identify medical tourists’ perception of service quality based on the three elements of core product, physical environment, and interaction. Qualitative analysis is used; and twelve respondents are interviewed from a selected private hospital in Penang Island. The study found that there is an overall positive perception of medical tourism in Penang Island and X hospital with a 100% of the respondents willing to make the same choice of destination and hospital in the future for the purpose of medical tourism. Factors such as communication, staff, hospital facilities, and service influenced the positive perception. The results show that there are a few negative factors affecting medical tourists’ perception such as: lack of following established procedures among hospital staff, hospital building problems, and lack of information for international patients.