Purpose: Hospitals need to determine if an international patient department is a necessity to communicate with and manage international patients.
Design/methodology/approach: A benchmarking instrument was created to assess the level of professionalism in managing international patients, including reviewing and validating processes by two university hospitals, professionals, and an expert panel.
Findings: First, the differences between the hospitals depended on the will of the hospital to engage in such activities. Second, the differences depended on the embedding national context in which the hospital was situated. Further validation revealed the importance of other supportive services, such as cultural sensitivity and language. Finally, the microlevel phenomenon of international patient departments is placed within a macrolevel transnational health region development scheme.
Originality/value: This study focused on the supply of services with respect to international patient departments, which could be related to efficiency and sustainability on a public health and health systems level.