The Medical Tourism Task Force in Columbia held its first meeting Tuesday to discuss how to make Columbia a national and international medical destination for patients and health care professionals.
The task force talked about how organizations involved like hospitals and hotels must be connected. Guy Collier, the task force chairman, said they need to make hospitality and transportation more accessible and develop more healthcare employment opportunities.
“We need to make sure that it is a user friendly process,” Collier said. “So that when they come they got places to stay. They are able to get from medical appointments, to hotels, to home and do it in a cost effective and user-friendly way.”
Mayor Brian Treece introduced the task force at the end of August with the purpose of improving Columbia’s medical system through a new economic plan.
The group’s goal is to develop an effective marking strategy, improve transportation and to create healthcare jobs. It says it will develop a plan over the next few years.
At the top of the to do list is the improvement of the Columbia Regional Airport. Mayor Treece says upgrades are in the works but they are still three to five years away.
Vivek Puri, vice president and general counsel of Hilton Garden Inn and the Holiday Inn Express, said the customer’s experience is important. Puri said customers talking about how much they loved their business is marketing they can never buy. Puri is optimistic they can ensure experiences like this by creating a successful plan for the future.
“My plan is to come up with something implementable,” Puri said. “I want to have a two-year plan. I want to have a five-year plan. I want to have a 10-year plan. I think it is doable. I think we have everything in place to make it happen.”
The task force does not only want to have Columbia be known on a national scale but an international scale according to James Cook, director of the Mizzou BioJoint Center. He said the BioJoint Center already has had patients come from Brazil, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Poland.
The task force plans on meeting again sometime in the next month.