Infection Prevention Leader, Heather Stoltzfus will be sharing her insights into how medical tourism poses a growing risk to infection prevention in her session at the APIC25 conference. Her discussions highlight how the increasing interconnectivity of global healthcare requires professionals in infection prevention to widen their perspectives beyond local healthcare settings. Ms. Stoltzfus’ extensive experience with Global Healthcare Accreditation enables her to equip fellow professionals in infection prevention and control with the necessary knowledge and resources to effectively respond to this complex international situation.
By drawing attention to the not-so-distant issue of medical tourism, she hopes to prepare US-based healthcare professionals to be adequately equipped to handle cases where patients return with medical complications, infections, or exposures that they may not have otherwise been prepared for. Medical tourists bring back a variety of health problems, including those stemming from cosmetic procedures, dental surgery, fertility treatments, or even major surgeries like joint replacements. The infiltration of these problems into the US healthcare system emphasizes the need for infection preventionists to both brace for the incoming health complications as well as participate in the enhancement of global healthcare systems that these patients engage with.
The goal of her session is to encourage attendees to consider their role in the processes of risk assessment and management, as well as response strategizing for instances where things go wrong. Drawing from her work with GHA, Ms. Stoltzfus discusses how the lack of consistent regulation and infection control practices across international facilities poses a challenge to the global healthcare scenario. One solution she proposes is the promotion of international IPC standards within the global health travel industry as a means to increase patient and physician confidence in accredited health facilities.
Ms. Stoltzfus uses case studies to highlight the grave scenarios that could emerge from unchecked infection control practices and to stress the importance of maintaining a high standard of infection prevention, regardless of where medical care is being provided. For instance, she discusses the case of patients who traveled abroad for cosmetic surgeries only to return with rapidly growing nontuberculous mycobacterial infections due to basic sterilization procedures not being adhered to in the medical facility they visited.
Her aim is not to discourage medical travel, but to emphasize how important infection prevention is in securing the health of individuals and communities. Her work continues to inspire and educate other healthcare professionals to extend their roles so as to accommodate changes in the global healthcare scene and to adjust their perspectives to handle the potential challenges that medical tourism could bring to the local healthcare paradigm.