Many of us when we travel abroad as individuals may be smart enough to think in advance about the possibility of a medical emergency. For those of us who live in the United States, and are used to a private insurance system it may be relatively easy to conceptualize the need for insurance. However, many people may or may not be aware that some aspects of their private medical insurance will not work, or will not be covered when they are abroad. [Read more…] about International Medical Assistance for Travellers: Insurance May Not be Enough!
International Employee Medical Assistance
Overseas travel for your employees can be enjoyable, but at the same time there is no discounting that it put a certain amount of stress on the human body. Long planes flights (even business class isn’t what it used to be), disrupted sleep schedules due to the change of time zones and exigencies of travel, and so on, can all stress anyone from a junior employee to a seasoned senior executive. Then add to that exposure to unfamiliar pathogens, and we’re getting nervous about our employees abroad. Getting sick is never fun, but when an illness is added to the other stresses, suddenly employee overseas medical assistance can go from being a theoretical “safety net” option to a clear and pressing need.
Employee Overseas Medical Assistance: A Not-So-Simple Case of Flu
To see how a simple case of the flu can escalate to the point where employee overseas medical assistance is might be needed, follow the the actions of a hypothetical traveler from Canada who just landed in the tropics. This person unknowingly already had a mild case of the flu, but this was ignored in the run-up to the trip. 
The day after arrival symptoms like fever started to manifest, but they put it down to lack of acclimatization to the tropical heat. One day two they were feeling distinctly worse, but of course there was work to do–the whole reason for the trip was business–and so soldiered on. By day three the flu laid them low, and in their weakened state they got a local bacterial infection from impure water, and they become dehydrated. Suddenly this traveler is at significant medical risk.
What might be a simple problem in Canada or the United States, can become a major employee crisis in a country such as Mexico or Brazil – not necessarily because of the health care system itself, but because your employee or senior executive is unfamiliar with how the health care system works in that country. And, in addition, he or she is under the weather. Can you imagine trying to navigate the health care system of a foreign country, when you are in ‘good health?’ Now imagine that when you are in ‘bad health.’
A Proven, Trusted Network for Overseas Employee Medical Assistance
You need a trusted friend, a trusted network, and someone who knows how to deal with overseas employee crises. This is the point where IMG Globalsecur employee monitoring tools and a pre-planned employee overseas medical assistance protocol could be a game-changer.
To how IMG Globalsecur can help you plan for just such incidents of employee overseas medical assistance, reach out to us today and have one of our friendly staff conduct an employee overseas monitoring audit and demo the available software.