Today was one of our busiest days, we visited 3 different hospitals which were definitely some of the most interesting places to see. Comparing them to hospitals in the US was fairly simple because our tour guides talked a lot about the similarities and differences. The first hospital, Clínica Bíblica was private, and it was obvious. Right away the group was given free drinks, and was allowed to relax in the lobby that felt more like an old church. The decorations and the furniture were very classy and upscale. Another thing we noticed right away was the smell, or lack thereof. In the U.S., hospitals smell like antiseptics, and sick people. They also create this feeling of tension and stress. In Clínica Bíblica, there was no hospital smell, the people seemed relaxed and confident in their doctors, and it was clean. The whole place was just spotless and very well maintained. I was very impressed with the service here, and even more so with the price.
The prices in Clínica Bíblica were 1/4 the prices of a typical hospital in the U.S. This makes it obvious why 17% of the hospital's patients are medical tourists. This hospital not only offers normal services, but it also provides tours and transportation to and from the airport. I could not believe that after the hospital's expansion they will have room for 5 helicopter pads and a charging station for electric cars! It was also awesome that they use an electronic filing system to keep track of their patients and they include their prescription information in this database. We think of our hospitals here in the U.S. as being so much better than everywhere else, yet; we definitely do not keep track of our information like we should. This hospital was not only in spectacular condition, but the services met high standards as well.
The next hospital we went to was a public hospital. It was interesting and notable that in Costa Rica, the public hospitals are designated towards a specific purpose. National Geriatric and Gerontologic Hospital (Blanco Cervantes) specializes towards old people. Walking into this hospital was much more depressing than the private ones. Since Ticos (Costa Ricans) pay into the government every year 9% their salary, and their employers pay 12%, the services people receive in the public hospitals are free. This allows everyone to receive treatment whenever they need it even if they would normally not be able to afford the procedure. However, this also creates an over crowding problem. The hospital had six people per hospital room, and there was nothing separating them from the outdoors.
Blanco Cervantes is run by the government, and does not having the funding necessary to keep a 24-hour emergency room open. They do not accept any private insurance policies, and they cover any treatment (including cancer treatments). One of the most important things for their future was for the public to be educated on how much each visit costs the government and that the services will not always be free if they continue to come in for every little ailment. It was not as well maintained or nearly as upscale as Clínica Bíblica, but it still maintained a feeling of calmness with very personable staff. Doctors and nurses who could choose to work for private hospitals which make 10,000 USD but stay at public hospitals to make 2,000 USD have earned my respect. Seeing how people were still happy with the services they were receiving through the government was really nice to see.
Hospital CIMA (Centro Internacional de Medicina) felt much more like a business than a hotel. I was expecting it to feel like Clínica Bíblica because it is also private, however it did not feel as rich or stuck up. It is JCI (Joint Commission International) accredited, and is held accountable to U.S. standards. They took lots of different foreign insurance policies, but had only 58 rooms. They were planning on expanding to the third floor when more patients started arriving, but for now it was a small hospital. A satellite hospital is being built in Guanacaste in order to give medical tourists closer access to the beach and beautiful countryside.
This was the quietest and emptiest of the three, probably because it did have a large focus on medical tourism. In fact, 30% of their patients are medical tourists. With two hotels built next door for patients to recover in, it was clear that the hospital wasn't aiming its attention at the locals. Appeasing foreigners was even more apparent considering that every room was a single, instead of the doubles we have in the U.S.A. One thing that CIMA was far behind on was their technological system. It only contains patients' standard information such as name and birthday, and their money balance. The only medical piece of information we were told about was the radiological data. CIMA really needs to step up their record keeping standards in order to compete in the future.
While hospitals were not what I was looking forward to most, and my feet were killing me in my heels after a tour of three entire hospitals, I did learn a lot. I never thought about the way a hospital feels when you walk in, and all of the different approaches they can take. Seeing how these three hospitals were all close to each other, but had completely different mindsets was fascinating. It was impressive to see how kind all of the people we spoke to were, especially considering they were doing this without any compensation. They were all very "hospitable."
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