Offshore liability: Can offshore hospitals be held responsible?

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 Because of the rising cost of health care in the US, more and more people are considering getting treatment abroad. Medical travel offers the same high-quality health care at only a fraction of the cost but not everyone is convinced; some are mostly concerned about hospital safety and liability.

One of the reasons why healthcare cost in the US is expensive is that the US healthcare system is the most bureaucratic healthcare system in the world, with thousands of different for-profit companies all vying for healthcare dollars. Another reason is that doctors and hospitals have expensive malpractice insurance policies in case they get sued.

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Experts in medical travel, like Steven Lash and Wouter Hoeberechts, note that hospitals in other countries rarely encounter such problems and medical malpractice lawsuits seldom happen. While both of these translate to cheaper health care, most people still wonder how these hospitals will act and will be held responsible if something goes wrong during a surgery.

Of course, when something goes haywire during an operation, the hospital is held responsible. Hospitals heavily rely on their and their doctors’ reputation, and the delivery of top-notch health services. To prove to patients that they follow strict industry guidelines, many offshore hospitals are Joint Commission International-accredited. The Joint Commission International is the international arm of the commission that accredits well-known US hospitals like the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

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