In 2000, a new addition to the Austral Campus was a teaching hospital, designed to follow the values of the University. As stated in their mission statement, they “aim to serve society through the search for truth, through the development and transmission of knowledge, training in the virtues and care of each person according to their transcendent destiny.” With this in mind, we were able to take what we learned in the lectures from yesterday and apply it to an extensive tour throughout the hospital. They shared great transparency with us as we had access to so much more than we would be able to see in an American hospital like walking right into the emergency wing and NICU without restrictions or looking at patient vital signs. Just from chatting with the nurses on staff who led the tour, I could tell how passionate they were about their job and working in such a rewarding industry. Most of the nurses we spoke to were from the pediatric ward and were very caring and proud of Austral. They reiterated the priority of quality and safety to create value to patients. They also hold fast to their own Catholic based values, such as pro-life considerations. Yesterday, Dr. Peloizari also emphasized how they are an accredited, top 10 hospital in Latin America.

Throughout their young history, they have tried to integrate more innovations to improve quality and safety standards for human resources, building again off their mission and vision. Yesterday, Dr. Gabin highlighted that “The only unique constant is change.” One way they are striving for this goal is through, HIVE, or Health Innovation and Value Enterprises. Through this program, they are attempting to transform the healthcare system to find ways to focus on accessible prevention methods and technologies rather than cures later on. Private hospitals, such as Austral, are known for their leadership with this innovation. On the tour, it was interesting to see how high-tech their computer system seemed, especially compared to my predictions. Translational medicine is also a new idea being developed to help provide tools and treatments more efficiently with a research lab within. The hospital also keeps a global mindset in these innovations, such as their adaptation of a Canadian registrations system that allows them to sign-in patients based on their health status effectively. Their physicians and surgeons also study and train in various countries to gain experience and bring back to their home country.

I was interested in seeing how my research on the pharmaceutical industry applied to a private hospital. The nurses stressed how although they have a good system in drug delivery to the hospital from local pharmaceutical companies, it is very time intensive. They also have to prepare the drugs on-site themselves. However, their transport system in the hospital seems more efficient as a tube elevator or a nurse wearing a specific green band delivers them. Many times patients are responsible for paying for the drugs they need because of the high expense for the hospital.

In the afternoon, we were able to visit the graduate business school and sit-in on an MBA Operations Management class. The students were working with legos on an interactive group project to learn about different supply chain methods, such as the Kanban, or just in time delivery system. Interestingly, the class is taught in English as these students are from many different parts of the world.

The last part of the day was very fun as we had the opportunity of interacting with several of the undergraduate students on campus. I was very impressed with their English skills and tried to answer their questions about the United States. We worked together to create posters on nutrition for a community center and then had a class taught by Dr. Martsolf on comparisons between our two healthcare systems. The students had a lot of interesting insights as they confirmed most of the research we had conducted prior. One fact that stood out to me was that we both have fragmented healthcare systems, but 18% of the US GDP is spent on healthcare, while 8% of Argentina’s GDP is, showing how much more efficient their system is at allocating resources.

The more I learn about the healthcare system, the more I am fascinated with the similarities and differences between the United States as well as the ways stakeholders interact within the system. The difference between types of organizations is something I look forward to discovering as we continue through the week.