Evaluation of health tourism awareness of hospital quality directors in Turkey

This research was conducted to measure, analyze and make recommendations on health tourism awareness of quality directors working in hospitals. In this context, the health tourism awareness scale was used to investigate the health tourism awareness of quality directors. An online survey was conducted between December 18, 2024 and January 15, 2025, among 315 quality directors working in public, private and university hospitals. Of the participants, 79.7% were female, 78.1% were married, 83.2% had undergraduate and graduate degrees, 54.3% were employed at the Ministry of Health hospital, 56.8% did not have a health tourism unit in the hospital they worked at, and 78.1% did not receive health tourism training. According to the study findings, the scale average was at a medium level (3.28), the highest awareness (4.12) was seen in the question of the contribution of health tourism to the country's economy, and the lowest awareness (2.43) was seen in the question of the inadequacy of foreign language proficiency in communication. According to the study findings, it was determined that there were significant differences (p<0.005) between the groups according to the type of hospital where the quality directors worked, the geographical region where the hospital was located, their educational status, their profession, and whether they received health tourism training or not. Within the scope of the study results, suggestions were made to increase the health tourism awareness of quality directors working in hospitals, and the strategic role of quality directors in health tourism was emphasized.