Day 9 in Argentina! Today we finally visited Austral. Around 8:00 am, the bus picked us up, and it dropped us off at Hospital Universitario Austral. Here, Dr. Marcelo Pellizzari, director of hospital’s care and safety department, gave us a brief overview of the hospital’s history and management. Dr. Pellizzari described how the hospital initially had very few patients. However, after the pandemic, thousands of people moved to the area. Hospitals then began to fill up quickly, medical personnel was forced to work longer shifts, and there weren’t enough beds to accommodate all the patients. During his lecture he made it very clear how the hospital is looking to increase its prices which will limit the number of individuals who can obtain care. Due to economic reasons, the private sector does not want to attend many people. By raising fees, the hospital’s financial bottom line will improve, the need for nurses and doctors will diminish, and it will be simpler to deliver high-quality healthcare.
Hospital Universitario Austral is a private hospital, just like Sanatorio de los Arcos, one of the hospitals of Swiss Medical Group which we visited earlier this week. Hospital Austral also owns and manages its own insurance company, called Austral Salud, in the same way that Swiss Medical owns and operates both hospitals and an insurance company. In both situations, the hospital and insurance provider collaborate to offer complete healthcare in Argentina. However, the largest payer for Swiss medical is their own insurance and in Austral, their own Salud Austral ranks just third. Another distinction between the two is that the Austral is a teaching hospital connected to the Universidad Austral, whereas Swiss Medical does not actually have an educational goal.
After a brief tour of the hospital, we visited UCIA, a palliative care center. Here, the medical center’s director of care gave us an explanation of the philosophy and goal of palliative care. In essence, they prioritize improving the quality of life during the few days that these patients still have left rather than extending their lives. He shared with us some experiences about some of the patients and their families it really helped me put things into perspective.
To end our time in Austral, we visited the University and had some time to socialize with some of the students. We were split up into groups, and each group was given a separate case study to attempt to resolve with help from a fellow university student. One of the girls even let us have some of her matte. It was my first time ever trying it! I really enjoyed having this time to talk to other students that were around our same age. Overall, it was a really good day. Looking forward to tomorrow.