Provider Listing Methodology

Recovery Tourism is building a research-led directory for medical tourism, recovery stays, wellness retreats, and related travel support services. A provider, doctor, clinic, hospital, recovery stay, hotel recovery partner, transportation provider, concierge, or other organization may appear in our research before it is ready for a public listing.

A listing is not an endorsement, recommendation, ranking, medical opinion, safety guarantee, or proof that a provider is appropriate for a specific visitor.

What We Research

We may review:

provider-owned websites and public business pages;
public accreditation directories;
public regulator or licensing sources;
tourism board, association, or industry sources;
provider correction or claim emails;
public service, facility, language, location, and international patient support information;
public recovery, travel, emergency, complication, and follow-up planning information.

We prefer official or provider-owned sources. Marketing pages, directories, articles, awards, and reviews can help discovery, but they do not replace source review.

Verification Statuses

Internal provider records may use these statuses:

unresearched - identified but not reviewed.
candidate - basic source URL captured.
source_reviewed - official or provider-owned sources reviewed.
contacted - provider outreach started after owner approval.
provider_confirmed - provider or authorized representative confirmed details.
partner - commercial relationship exists and disclosure language is documented.
not_listable - excluded or held because of missing evidence, mismatch, risk, opt-out, duplicate, or poor fit.

Public pages may use plain-language labels rather than these internal terms.

How We Evaluate Different Listing Types

There is no single accreditation that applies to every kind of health, recovery, or wellness listing. We first identify the organization and service, then check the evidence and rules that apply to that entity in its country or territory. A public searchable registry is useful but not the only possible route: where one is unavailable, we record documented confirmation from an appropriate regulator or issuing authority, or hold the credential-dependent claim until it can be corroborated.

Hospitals, clinics, dental practices, laboratories, pharmacies, and telehealth services: check the exact site, required operating authorization, advertised service, and relevant clinical staff credentials. For surgery or higher-acuity care, review emergency transfer, complication response, records, and follow-up arrangements.
Individual clinicians: check the person’s current professional registration or licence, scope of practice, and the facility where the service will be delivered. A facility credential does not verify an individual clinician.
Medical-travel facilitators and coordinators: check business identity, the actual coordination role, provider relationships, fee/referral disclosures, consent, and privacy practices. Keep coordination separate from clinical care.
Recovery lodging, hotels, and resorts: check the operating property, location, accommodation and support services, and evidence behind recovery-related claims. Nursing or clinical-care claims need their own staff, scope, and authorization checks. GHA WellHotel is a hospitality credential; it does not establish clinical competence.
Nonclinical retreats, spas, fitness, and traditional or complementary wellness: check who operates the program, what participants actually receive, staff qualifications as claimed, safety and emergency arrangements, and whether any regulated act, title, medicine, or substance is involved. A hospital accreditor is not a blanket requirement for nonclinical hospitality or wellness.
Investigational, regenerative, psychedelic, or other emerging interventions: do not present commercial availability as proof of approval, safety, or effectiveness. Identify the intervention, product, responsible clinician and facility, applicable regulator status, and any registered study; send these claims for enhanced editorial review.

JCI accreditation covers multiple organization types, including ambulatory settings, while its ambulatory program includes dental, imaging, dialysis, cosmetic-surgery, fertility, and other specialty clinics. GHA’s medical-travel accreditation is scoped to hospitals and ambulatory centers with medical-travel programs, and GHA WellHotel addresses hospitality operations. Those distinct scopes are why we do not make either JCI or GHA a universal listing prerequisite.

Accreditation can be a useful, optional research signal, but it does not guarantee outcomes, safety, clinician skill, pricing accuracy, legal recourse, or recovery quality. If we state an accreditation, we identify the exact organization or site, program and scope, current status, source, and date checked. A missing optional accreditation alone does not make an otherwise eligible provider ineligible. Required local credentials, identity, and service evidence still matter.

Helpful starting sources include:

What We Do Not Do

Recovery Tourism does not:

provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or emergency support;
rank providers as best or safest without a published methodology and evidence;
guarantee provider credentials, outcomes, pricing, or availability;
create a doctor-patient relationship;
hide paid placements, sponsored profiles, or referral relationships;
publish provider-submitted claims without review;
route visitor inquiries to providers without consent and manual gates.

Paid Relationships

Sponsored profiles, paid placements, affiliate relationships, referral relationships, or lead-routing relationships must be disclosed where they appear. Payment does not replace verification status and does not allow a provider to buy a safety claim.

See our sponsored placement disclosure for more detail.

Provider Corrections

Providers can submit corrections or profile updates by email to contact@recoverytourism.com; the provider claim page explains what to include. Corrections are reviewed separately from any paid profile, sponsored placement, or referral relationship.

Providers can request outreach suppression through the provider opt-out page.

Publication Gates

A provider page should not become public unless the row has:

a source URL;
a last-reviewed date;
a verification label;
public-safe fields only;
required disclosures;
no unresolved suppression block;
owner approval for the exact publish batch.

Large provider batches, lead routing, outreach, phone calls, and AI directory answers remain blocked until Recovery Tourism records both owner readiness approval and owner send/publish approval.

Provider Listing Methodology