How to Track Medical Tourism Patients' Hotels and Flights
Why hotel and flight details belong on the patient record, not in a coordinator's spreadsheet — and which fields, roles and checks make it work.
The reliable way to track a medical tourism patient's hotel and flights is to store them on the patient record itself: hotel name, check-in and check-out dates, room and confirmation number, and each flight's number, PNR, airports and times. Everyone who needs the information — coordinator, doctor, interpreter, call centre — then reads the same record instead of a spreadsheet, a messaging thread and a PDF in someone's inbox.
Why do spreadsheets fail for patient travel logistics?
A spreadsheet is detached from the clinical record. When a surgery date moves, the coordinator must remember to update the hotel row; when a flight changes, the interpreter meeting the patient hears about it last. Spreadsheets also have no access control: anyone who can open the file sees every patient's passport-adjacent travel data, and there is no record of who changed a check-out date.
| Problem | Spreadsheet or chat | On the patient record |
|---|---|---|
| Surgery date changes | Hotel row updated separately, if remembered | Dates sit on the same record as the surgery |
| Interpreter needs the arrival time | Asks the coordinator | Reads the flight on the patient record |
| Who can see travel data | Anyone with the file | Only roles granted hotel or flight access |
| Staff member leaves | File copies stay on personal devices | Access ends with the clinic membership |
What travel details should a clinic record?
- Hotel: name, check-in and check-out dates, room number, confirmation number, cost and currency, notes (for example: ground floor requested after surgery).
- Flights: airline, flight number, PNR, departure and arrival airports, departure and arrival times, outbound / return / transit, cabin class and cost.
- Keep one record per stay and per flight leg, so a return flight or an extended stay is a new entry rather than an overwritten one.
Who on the team should see hotel and flight data?
Travel data follows the patient through several hands, but not every role needs to edit it. A workable split is: the coordinator creates and edits everything; the doctor reads it to plan around arrival and departure; the interpreter reads it and updates what they observe, such as a delayed arrival; the call centre reads it to answer the patient. ClinicArchitect's default roles follow this pattern, and each clinic can change it per role or per staff member.
| Role | Hotel and flights (ClinicArchitect default) |
|---|---|
| Clinic owner / administrator | Create, edit, delete |
| Doctor | Read |
| Translator | Read and update |
| Call centre | Read |
What about time zones?
Hotel nights are calendar days, so they should be stored as dates that do not shift when viewed from another country. Flight times are moments in time: a departure from London at 08:00 should appear as 11:00 to a coordinator in Istanbul, and as 08:00 to a colleague in London. ClinicArchitect stores hotel dates as calendar days and flight times as exact instants shown in each viewer's local time.
How to set it up in ClinicArchitect
- In clinic settings, enable the Hotel bookings and/or Flight tickets modules. Clinics set up as aesthetic surgery or general practice have both enabled from the start.
- Open a patient: a Travel section appears with the patient's hotel stays and flights.
- Add a hotel stay with its dates; the number of nights is calculated for you. Check-out cannot be saved before check-in.
- Add each flight leg and mark it outbound, return or transit. A flight needs at least a flight number or a PNR.
- Review role permissions so interpreters and call-centre staff can read travel data without seeing what they do not need.
Travel records are available in the web dashboard, and in the mobile app from its next update. ClinicArchitect does not book hotels or flights, track live flight status or message the patient; it keeps the details the clinic has confirmed in one place, next to the medical record.
שאלות נפוצות
Can clinic management software track patients' hotels and flights?
Some can. ClinicArchitect stores hotel stays and flight legs on the patient record, with dates, flight numbers, PNRs and costs, behind role-based permissions.
Does ClinicArchitect book hotels or flights?
No. It records bookings the clinic or patient has already made. It does not connect to airline or hotel booking systems or track live flight status.
Can an interpreter see travel details without seeing clinical assessments?
Yes. Permissions are set per area. ClinicArchitect's default translator role can read and update hotel and flight records but has no access to pre-operative or post-operative assessments.