The Alpine region has a great opportunity in terms of rehabilitation services, said the director of Zurich University Hospital, Prof. Gregor Zünd, in a highly acclaimed presentation. Center clinics are interested in discharging their patients for professional aftercare earlier than today. In the medium term, this could ease the burden on the complex infrastructure of central hospitals and reduce costs per patient, Zünd was convinced. Where aftercare takes place should be determined by costs and quality and not by cantonal borders.
Rudolf Leuthold, head of the Graubünden Health Department, supported Prof. Zünd's theses. Health tourism in particular offers the Alpine region the opportunity to keep decentralized medical services alive.
Dieter Frisch from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich showed that insurance companies may certainly be interested in decentralized programs in the Alpine region using examples from Bavaria. There, the development of new programs is being promoted just as consistently as the measurement of patient success. The costs of preventive programs are often just a fraction of the treatment for later illnesses, Frisch said.
Maybe even a gold mine
Jürg Schmid, still Director of Switzerland Tourism, took a self-critical look at the marketing of Switzerland as a health destination abroad. Tourism professionals simply do not have the know-how for medical services, he said. They should focus on healthy guests and their interest in preventive programs. Special medical marketing is required for medical tourism with sick guests.
In order to make health tourism a gold mine for the Alpine region, in addition to appropriate infrastructure, a will to cooperate, clear specialization and profile building and, above all, a great deal of stamina, warned Anna Wallebohr from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Economics Director Jon Domenic Parolini had previously underlined that the Graubünden government is pursuing health tourism as a strategic development goal, but is also consistently focusing on valid business ideas and business plans.
Build like in a mountain village
German star architect Christoph Ingenhoven provided a fist-thick surprise. After it became known only on the morning of the conference that his client Lanserhof and Klinik Gut were negotiating a cooperation in St. Moritz, he presented his alternative design proposal for the Serletta Süd project. Instead of the indicative project with two larger building cubes approved by the people and the Graubünden government, he showed several heavily subdivided buildings based on a mountain village. This was not a provocation, he said, but a contribution to the discussion.
The speakers in the practice section underlined that health services and hospitality go together very well. With the patient hotel in Lausanne, the Giardino Group's Ayurveda initiative and the Santasana St. Moritz heart rehabilitation project, three very different projects were shown. The call for a clear positioning, the reduction to clear core competencies and the importance of well-trained personnel were evident from all practical presentations, summarized the initiator and host of the conference, Christian Gartmann.
The topic of “Health Tourism in the Alpine Region” lives on: The fourth “Health & Tourism” conference is scheduled for September 19, 2018. Councillor Christian Rathgeb, HSG Rector Prof. Thomas Bieger, Aevis Victoria Board President Christian Wenger and Hof Weissbad host Christian Lienhard have already confirmed as speakers.
Health & Tourism Conference
The “Health & Tourism” conference is a private initiative for the Alpine region. It is aimed at service providers from tourism, healthcare and industry as well as decision makers from politics and associations and aims to highlight opportunities and market opportunities for health tourism development in the Alpine region. The first event was held in 2015, and since then the conference has been growing year by year.
visuals
Photos of the conference can be downloaded for free on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/gartmannbiz/albums/72157678585392153