Medical Travel Today (MTT): Prior to joining Medicana you were involved in the World Bank health project. Can you explain what that is?  Oguz Engiz (OE): World Bank Health projects can be seen in many different places around the world – Mexico, Chile, Bulgaria, Albania, Georgia and Turkey to name a few. These are BIG projects. In fact, the World Bank spent nearly 400 million US dollars on them in just 10 years. The money is basically used to help develop a country or region’s capacity and healthcare management expertise, and to develop infrastructure. It doesn’t go towards actual bricks and mortar but is often used to help develop architectural plans and vision, and for the training of managers. MTT: What attracted you to the opportunity at Medicana International Ankara Hospital? OE: Well, I’ve been here from the very beginning. In fact, I arrived at the planning stages, and one of the key priorities of the construction was to make sure it was done in line with JCI standards.  It was imperative that everything be done to the highest standard of quality and efficiency. And to start a project with that type of vision, well, that was exciting. The result is  a comprehensive private hospital. The caliber of medicine being practiced here seriously rivals the world’s best facilities. We perform kidney, liver and bone marrow transplants. There’s chemotherapy, advanced IMRT, nuclear medicine, interventional radiology, IVF… almost everything being done in modern medicine is being done here by truly talented professionals.  We have 700 staff members, 200 beds, several operating theaters, significant outpatient capacity, and state-of-the-art equipment. In fact, some of our equipment simply cannot be found anywhere else in this part of the world. MTT: I’m curious, was medical travel part of the initial vision? OE: Without a doubt. Medical travel has been a subject of growing interest in Turkey for the past 10 years. To start, we were getting patients from Albania. That’s now broadened to include Georgia, Azerbaijan, central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyrstan, Tajikistan — all the –stan countries! We staffed and structured to address language and food issues but, unlike other hospitals that simply have international patient departments, we  wanted instead to build a world-class facility and to behave like a university hospital. This makes us unique and attracts attention beyond Turkey. People in the region are now looking at us for advanced, quality care. For example,  we offer open-heart surgery, EPS, ablation, ICDs and interventional radiology. We also offer types of brain surgeries that you can’t get elsewhere in this part of the world. MTT: In terms of priorities, where does medical travel fall on your list? OE: It’s very important. Just this week we spoke with a group from Algeria that wants to send hundreds of patients per month for radiotherapy. We appeal to them because we have the treatment and direct flights from some Algerian cities. The talks were very positive and now we are negotiating costs and details. It’s likely some of these patients will need long-term outpatient accommodations — more than 15 days. As it happens we have provided guesthouses for those types of situations. This is something they now want included in their costs. We’re happy to do that. Recently we’ve also received a considerable number of patients from Libya and northern Iraq. Baghdad, too, but that’s principally for pediatric cardiac surgery. In that case, they have solid adult cardiac centers but nothing in the way of pediatric care.   MTT: How many international patients do you currently treat annually and from where do they come and for what purpose? OE: We see nearly 1,000 international patients a year. And, to be clear, that figure does not include expats. As I mentioned, we see people from Albania, Georgia, Algeria, Iraq, Libya, the –stans. These folks mostly come for organ and bone marrow transplants, or for open-heart procedures. We also see a good number of patients from Holland, Germany and England. The draw for them tends to be eye surgery and dental care. MTT: You have dental within the hospital? OE: Oh, yes, as well as IVF, physical therapy, rehabilitation and hemodialysis. We really tried to create a complete facility here with a standard of care that can’t be matched.   Part Two of this interview will be featured in our next issue, Volume 6, Issue 1   About Oguz Engiz Oguz Engiz was instrumental in several key World Bank health projects between 1992-1996. Since 1996 he has been an executive in the private hospital sector at facilities, including Bay?nd?r Medical Center and Mesa Hospital, and now serves as CEO at Medicana International Ankara Hospital, Ankara’s largest private hospital. He is a frequent lecturer on Strategic Hospital Management at universities and has participated in national and international conferences on hospital management. In addition, he chairs Health Volunteers (Turkey) and serves as publisher of hospitalmanager journal. Engiz can be reached at [email protected]