Starting in 2016, the Rothschild Foundation Hospital has totally rethought and restructured the welcome it extends to international patients. Its efforts have now been rewarded by the French Hospital Quality* label. Created in early 2022, this label is the only official guarantee of quality care for foreign patients in French hospitals.
The Rothschild Foundation Hospital has a dedicated international department, staffed by three full-time employees who speak English, Arabic and French, and a part-time doctor who studies patients’ medical files and ensures that all the documents required to enable treatment have been sent, whether for an opinion, consultation or hospitalization. After this first stage, a referring doctor in each department analyzes each case and suggests a course of treatment, then hands over to the international department team, which provides an estimate within 48 hours.
The care offered to international patients revolves around a medical consultations center (Centre Médical Argentine) located close to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Specific examinations, surgical procedures and hospitalizations are carried out on the hospital’s site in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. International patients have the benefit of a dedicated hospital department comprising five modern, spacious and bright rooms.
“The French Hospital Quality label certificate obtained in 2023 represents a major step forward for our hospital, strengthening as it does our trust-based relations with our current and future partners. This label is also a source of pride for our teams, as we are contributing to the overall development of the quality of French hospitals and to our country’s international reputation in the medical sector,” Julien Gottsmann, CEO of the Adolphe de Rothschild Foundation Hospital.
Over the past five years, patients from 45 different countries have been treated at the Rothschild Foundation Hospital, most of them from the Middle East, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Care was suspended as a result of Covid, but has now resumed and stands at the same level as in 2019, with 400 international patients treated in 2022. “Two thirds of these patients are self-financing, and one third is covered by state or insurance referral networks,” said Mr. Gottsmann.
The international activities of the Rothschild Foundation Hospital are founded on four pillars.
The first of these involves mainly research collaboration and partnerships with world-renowned university hospitals, notably in the United States (Stanford, Harvard, Pittsburgh), the United Kingdom and Singapore (Singapore National Eye Center).
The second pillar incorporates cooperation with developing countries (such as project development assistance and support and training of teams on site and in Paris). It is funded by the Direction Générale de l’Offre de Soins (DGOS) of the French Ministry of Health and is currently deployed in Benin, Rwanda, Niger and Mali.
The third pillar involves international support for the management of hospital projects, offering audits and consultancy services to healthcare organizations, for example in the design of their ophthalmology departments or a neurovascular network for the treatment of stroke.
The fourth pillar is the care of international paying patients, which received the French Hospital Quality label in 2023. This activity currently generates annual sales of almost €4 million, with the body’s stated ambition being to grow to €10 million per year by 2025.
To achieve this goal, in early 2024 the Rothschild Foundation Hospital will open an international hub in Rabat, Morocco, in partnership with the Sheikh Zayed Foundation. At regular intervals, its doctors will travel to practice on site with patients from all over Africa. For patients, this system will help reduce their treatment costs and simplify the administrative procedures needed to obtain visas.
“The Rothschild Foundation Hospital represents all the excellence of French medicine regarding head and neck pathologies in adults and children. Our establishment has acquired a solid reputation worldwide, notably for its expertise in surgery for drug-resistant epilepsy in children, corneal transplants, treatment of keratoconus and interventional neuroradiology (aneurysms, arterial or venous malformations, etc.),” Fabrice Verrièle, deputy director general of the Adolphe de Rothschild Foundation Hospital and head of the hospital’s international activities.
Other development projects will also be incorporated into this lucrative international business, in particular in Angola, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Israel. They will be managed by the hospital’s international subsidiary, EDRIH (Edmond de Rothschild International Hospital), some in collaboration with the Gustave Roussy Institute.
“In order to obtain the French Hospital Quality label, an audit was carried out by AFNOR. This is based on ten criteria broken down into 57 items (welcome, responsiveness of the international service, consideration of the patient’s experience, quality of the hospital stay, access to an interpreter, etc.). Only hospitals rated between A and C by the French National Authority for Health (HAS) qualify for the label. They must also have been accepting foreign patients for at least one year.
