Hospitals across the U.S. are beginning to realize that India and other foreign markets may soon begin to drain away meaningful amounts of their business. Fortunately, medical tourism can move in the other direction too, bringing cash-bearing foreign visitors over to our shores for treatment here.

At Seattle's Swedish Medical Center, execs are particularly focused on capturing the attention of potential medical tourists. The hospital has launched a program designed specifically to grow its roster of foreign patients, particularly full-charge self-pay patients from Japan and China. In so doing, it's competing with high-profile providers like the Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins Hospital, both of which have international marketing programs in place.

At Swedish, only $7 million to $8 million of its annual $1.2 billion in revenue comes from international patients at present. However, it has much bigger hopes. To grow that base, Swedish hopes to set up consulting relationships with Chinese and Japanese providers, largely as a means of establishing credibility in those markets.

To learn more about Swedish's medical tourism marketing:
- read this Modern Healthcare article [1]

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