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It appears Tallahassee officials want a ride on the medical tourism bus, which has motored through the Gulf Coast for a few years.
Medical tourism combines health care with hospitality. So someone can come to Florida for a surgery or another procedure, then utilize the state's bevy of hotels and attractions. Some in Tallahassee like the idea so much, reports the Associated Press, that legislators will consider a measure to allocate $5 million annually to add medical tourism to the list of state attractions. The money, says the AP, would promote a combination of hospitality and medical care to people everywhere from the U.S. to the Middle East, the Caribbean and Europe.
Officials point to a project in south Florida, where a medical management firm turned the former Metropolitan Hospital of Miami into a medical tourist destination. But the idea of medical tourism, and in some cases the execution, has percolated on the Gulf Coast for several years.
One company, Sarasota-based Florida Medical Retreat, has been in the industry since late 2010. The company targets clients from Canada to Europe, in addition to U.S. cities in the Northeast and Midwest. It partners with local physicians, including orthopedic surgeons, and it also partners with senior living facilities and rehabilitation centers, like the Sarasota Bay Club. The pitch: Get your knee surgery or hip replacement, then stay and enjoy the area's beaches and art scene while in recovery.
The potential market is certainly there. More than 30 Sarasota County physicians reported an interest in medical tourism when the Economic Development Corp. of Sarasota County commissioned a survey in 2010, and least 15 practices already had international clients.
Another kind of medical tourism has been bandied about in Naples, home of Arthrex, the billion-dollar surgical-device maker. Arthrex founder and President Reinhold Schmieding spoke publicly in 2012 about the need for a convention center in town to host the dozens of medical and sales meetings the firm hosts. He estimated that 10,000 people visit Naples every year for something related to Arthrex, with an economic impact of at least $10 million.
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