Cultural Sensitivity Cultivating Model for international health services— Experiences from Kuang Tien general hospital in Taiwan

International medical tourism increased rapidly in last decade. Medical providers in international medical services interact with customers from a widening variety of culture and ethnic backgrounds. This situation suggests a growing need for cultural competency training and cultivation.Our study aims to construct a cultural sensitivity cultivating model for training medical professionals.We reviewed 5 international medical tourism case reports from Kuang Tien General Hospital in Taiwan and conducted 2-hour in-depth interview with manager of International Health Services Center (IHSC) in early 2015 to explore successful cultural sensitivity cultivating model for providing true patient-centered international health services.We have constructed a systematic international customer cultural sensitivity cultivating model (CSC model). Our CSC model suggests five essential steps: Promote Awareness, Share Scenarios, Review Process, Identify Gaps, and Improve Systems. Passion, compassion, openness, and realistic are important attitudes to successfully apply CSC model. The CSC model successfully co-creates great values and bridges the gaps between international customers and health providers. Through CSC model the health providers can be aware of diverse cultures and customer true needs, and being able to modify the systems according to the lessons we learned from reviewing process and customers’ experiences.