Northwest Specialty Hospital, in Post Falls, is looking to capitalize on Canada’s growing medical tourist market by bundling some of its surgical procedures with a stay at the Coeur d’Alene Resort.

The Canadian market promotion started quietly in December with a maple leaf symbol posted on Northwest Specialty Hospital’s website that linked to its medical tourism page, says Rick Rasmussen, CEO at the private, physician-owned hospital.

Rasmussen says the hospital fields inquiries from Canadian residents almost daily, most of whom say they heard about Northwest Specialty Hospital’s medical tourism program through word of mouth.

“We feel it’s going in the right direction,” Rasmussen says. “Now we’re ramping up our marketing.”

The hospital has started recording commercials that likely will air on U.S. TV stations that broadcast into Canada, he says.

The advertising campaign will aim to reach Canadian population centers, such as Vancouver, British Columbia, and Calgary, Alberta, that have commercial flights connecting to Spokane International Airport, Rasmussen says.

The hospital also is about to launch a new website fully dedicated to the Canada market, he says. The page will open with a banner photo of the Coeur d’Alene Resort overlooking Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Another click or two will bring the virtual visitor to a menu of surgical procedures with total package prices for knee, hip, and shoulder joint replacements; anterior cruciate ligament repairs; and eight options for bariatric surgeries.

Tentative prices range from $11,250 for an ACL package to $25,250 for a total shoulder replacement.

A total package for a hip replacement, for instance, is $24,000, including lodging for up to six nights at the lakefront resort in downtown Coeur d’Alene. Hotel accommodations also include transportation between the hotel and the hospital.

The medical portion of the package includes the surgical procedure, anesthesia fees, hospital stay and facility fees, up to three days of physical therapy, insurance coverage against unforeseen complications, and pre-operative and post-operative consultations.

“The package covers patients from the time they get off the plane until they get back to the airport,” Rasmussen says, adding that airfare isn’t included.

Such procedures at some other hospitals can cost tens of thousands of dollars more than the total cost at Northwest Specialty Hospital, Rasmussen asserts.

“We’re trying to take away all that confusion,” he says. “We’re using the same implants, pharmaceuticals, and supplies. When you focus on something, you get better at controlling costs.”

The hospital doesn’t skimp on services in its cost controls, Rasmussen says.

“We have single-patient rooms and great nurses and staff,” he says, adding that Northwest Specialty Hospital’s chef creates gourmet meals that far exceed patient expectations for hospital food.

Rasmussen declines to disclose the number of Canadian patients the hospital has treated so far.

“Some were coming down even before we had the program,” he says. “We’re hoping medical tourism grows to 8 to 10 percent of our volume.”

Canada’s national health care system covers most costs for medical procedures performed there, but the wait for certain elective surgeries can take months or even years, triggering some patients to bypass the system and pay out of pocket for procedures outside of Canada.

A report issued last week by the Fraser Institute, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based public policy think tank, estimated more than 52,500 Canadians ventured abroad to seek medical care in 2014, a 26 percent increase compared with the year earlier.

The report estimated that more than 1 percent of all patients receiving nonemergency care sought care outside of Canada, led in percentage points by the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta with 1.6 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively, of patients receiving nonemergency care treatment abroad.

“In 2014, the average patient in Canada could expect to wait almost 10 weeks for medically necessary treatment after seeing specialists,” said Bacchus Barua, Fraser Institute senior economist, in a press release accompanying the report. “This wait time is more than three weeks longer than what physicians consider to be clinically reasonable.”

Rasmussen says some Canadian patients who’ve contacted Northwest Specialty Hospital reported they had been told they’d have to wait until they’re 55 years old to even qualify for certain procedures, such as hip replacements.

“You have to wait a long time and you don’t get a choice of where you go,” Rasmussen says, of the Canadian system.

“Sometimes you can’t wait until you’re 55,” says Rasmussen, who’s had his own hips replaced, several years ago at the age of 44, due in part to damage from his college football days at the University of Montana in the early 1980s.

“If you’re 52 years old and you want to get out and hunt and fish, here is a place with a low infection rate and you don’t have to wait,” he says of Northwest Specialty Hospital.

Northwest Specialty Hospital claims an infection rate of less than half of 1 percent, which is more than five times lower than the national rate of infection for hospitals.

“The infection rate here is one of the lowest in all of the Northwest,” Rasmussen asserts. “It’s a big selling point for us.”

Planning for a procedure often involves some cross-border communication between the hospital and the patient’s health care providers.

“We need to see the patient’s medical records and MRI (magnetic resonance image),” he says.

For the most part, Canadian physicians don’t begrudge patients who go abroad for a procedure rather than wait for months or years, Rasmussen says.

“They know what their system is like,” he says.

Though the procedures are considered elective surgeries, some are “without a doubt life-extending and medically necessary,” he says.

People willing to pay out of pocket for procedures abroad save the Canadian system money in the long run, Rasmussen says.

“If you don’t choose to use it, it leaves more money in the system,” he says.

Canadian patients generally need only about a week turnaround time between leaving their homes and returning.

“They fly down on a Monday, meet with physicians on Tuesday, and have the surgery on Wednesday,” Rasmussen says.

Meantime, a patient’s spouse stays at the Coeur d’Alene Resort.

For a hip procedure the average length of stay is two days at the hospital, Rasmussen says. “By then they are up and moving,” he says. “They’re not driving, but they’re able to move around.”

After a few more days at the resort and some initial physical therapy, the patient can get back on the plane home. “It’s amazing how far the technology has come,” he says.

Rasmussen  says fellow Coeur d’Alene native J.J. Jaeger, who until recently was the marketing director at the Coeur d’Alene Resort, worked on behalf of the hotel to help arrange the bundled packages.

Jaeger, who now is the general manager at an affiliated hotel, says Northwest Specialty Hospital has a reputation that’s a good match for the world-renowned Coeur d’Alene Resort.

“Northwest Specialty Hospital is a first-class hospital, and we think it’s a great partnership,” he says.

Though the Canadian market is the main target of the medical tourism campaign, patients from around the U.S. are looking to it for the cost savings, Rasmussen says.

Some third-party health network administrators around the country, including Denver Based BridgeHealth Medical and Chicago-based HealthEngine, also are looking at including Northwest Specialty Hospitals among preferred options for procedures due to the hospital’s transparently bundled fees, and its quality rating.

“Businesses like costs fixed and capped,” Rasmussen says.

Recent procedures for patients from outside of the Pacific Northwest include a knee replacement for a patient from Tennessee, a shoulder reconstruction for a patient from Florida, and a couple of bariatric procedures for patients from Alaska, he says.

Northwest Specialty Hospital opened in Post Falls in 2003. The hospital is licensed for 34 beds, and it has 120 physicians and 75 nurses on staff.