What is TÜSKA Certification?

A New Era Has Begun in Health Tourism.

As the health tourism sector continues to grow year after year, expectations for oversight and quality in healthcare facilities are also increasing. Today, simply accepting international patients or possessing a Health Tourism Authorization Certificate is no longer considered sufficient.

Healthcare organizations are expected to manage and document international patient processes within specific standards and establish a sustainable quality system.

What is TÜSKA?

TÜSKA (Turkish Institute for Healthcare Quality and Accreditation)It is a national accreditation body that operates with the aim of improving the quality of healthcare services, enhancing patient safety, and ensuring that healthcare organizations provide services in accordance with specific standards.

The standards developed by TÜSKA cover not only the treatment processes of healthcare organizations, but also their management, organization, patient experience, employee safety, data security, and quality management processes.

Why is TÜSKA Important for Clinics Engaged in Health Tourism?

Under the Regulation on International Health Tourism and Tourist Health, meeting certain quality standards is mandatory for health tourism activities.

TÜSKA tarafından hazırlanan Sağlık Turizmi Sertifikasyon Kriter Seti toplam 32 kriterden oluşmaktadır. Yapılan değerlendirmelerde sağlık kuruluşlarının bu kriterlerin en az %80'ini karşılaması beklenmektedir.

These criteria are not solely for obtaining certification; they have been established to enhance patient safety, improve service quality, and ensure the sustainable conduct of health tourism activities.

Main Expectations from Clinics

When the criteria determined by TÜSKA are examined, healthcare institutions are expected to meet certain standards, especially in the following areas:

• Establishment of the International Patient Unit
• Managing health tourism processes
• Planning staff training
• Creating job descriptions
• Establishing a patient satisfaction system
• Ensuring data security and patient privacy.
• Conducting post-treatment patient follow-up processes.
• Managing transfer and accommodation processes in accordance with regulations.
• Establishing authorized agency partnerships.
• Website and promotional activities in a foreign language.
• Managing the processes of the Health Tourism Portal.
• Establishing quality management and performance monitoring systems.

TÜSKA's assessments examine the processes, records, practices, and documentation structure related to these topics.

While the headings above do not constitute the complete set of criteria, they summarize the key issues most frequently encountered by clinics operating in the field of health tourism and which are highlighted during inspections.

The Most Common Deficiencies We Encounter in Clinics

Many clinics operating in the field of health tourism encounter similar shortcomings during preliminary assessments. These include:

• Lack of health tourism procedures
• The Health Tourism Portal registrations are incomplete or outdated.
• Ineffective implementation of patient satisfaction processes.
• Lack of records for staff training
• Lack of job descriptions
• Foreign language website deficiencies
• Absence of authorized agency agreements
• Failure to record transfer and accommodation processes.
• Inadequate data security and GDPR processes.

These shortcomings pose risks in auditing processes and make it difficult to conduct health tourism activities in an institutional and sustainable manner.

What are we doing?

We offer professional consulting services to dental clinics, polyclinics, and private practices engaged in health tourism, helping them prepare for the TÜSKA and Health Tourism Certification processes.

Our services include:

• TÜSKA preliminary audit and current situation analysis.
• Preparation of the deficiency report
• Establishing documentation processes for health tourism.
• Review of the organizational structure
• Preparing job descriptions
• Creating training plans
• Establishing a patient satisfaction system
• Monitoring the processes of the Health Tourism Portal.
• Evaluation of authorized agency processes.
• Ensuring transfer and accommodation processes comply with regulations.
• Pre-audit preparation and consulting services