Back to our 8am mornings… at least I’ll be conditioned for my workdays after my trip! After a quick breakfast, we jumped on the bus and headed straight for the private facilities of Austral University and its hospital. I have been so excited to see this campus ever since we received our Austral notebooks and tote bags… today was the day. The bus ride was long but well needed-for a nap. As we arrived, you were greeted with a beautiful campus site and a hospital that’s quite like ours. As you walked through the doors, immediately a Starbucks was in reach and it felt just like home!
Board member and director for the hospital’s quality and safety department, Dr. Marcelo Pellizzari, began with a brief run-down of the Austral hospital’s history and management and Q&A. Surprisingly, this facility is quite new only being just built in the year 2000 which is fairly pubescent compared to hospitals in the United States. Pellizzari even touched on different subjects regarding Austral’s five main focuses, ‘value over cost’ belief, and response to COIVD including the aftermath. The hospital cares about five core focuses regarding care- the needs of workers, patients and families, quality and safety, efficiency, and innovation. Because of these, COVID hit hard on Austral, turning the facility to close for two months due to folks being afraid to enter public places like hospitals. They had to rely heavily on government aid to keep the ball rolling.
As I mentioned before, Austral is purely private, meaning patients/students pay out of pocket for healthcare/education. The hospital does work with Obras Sociales members as well. Austral is what’s called a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), which is when an insurance entity doesn’t only provide coverage, but also an area for care… just like Swiss Medical Group with Santorio de los Arcos! This makes you question, what are the differences and similarities between the two? A key difference is the wait times for patients to be seen by physicians. SMG is focused on quick admission as they are more staffed and work in a larger populated area, whereas Austral’s patients could wait up to a month to be seen. This is hard to manage as for COVID-19 caused 100,000 people to move to Austral’s surrounding areas, they’re working to keep up. Another difference is that SMG pays their doctor directly as for Autral’s executive doctors receive payment from their partner- the OSDE. Similarly, both hospitals are rather quiet and cleaner than the public, and agree they provide more efficient care than the public sector. Finally, we got to briefly tour the hospital and see some NICU babies! These preemies filled my heart with joy seeing how tiny they are.
However, my favorite part of the day was going to Austral’s Univserty building and mingling with their student’s! This time, I got to meet two amazing, kind, and generous buisness students- Maggie and Santiago. We enjoyed some delcious empanadas (which I’ll miss once home) while discussing a case activity regarding introudction to AI in healthcare. Not long, we began to talk about Argentina customs instead. Maggie surprised us and brough out her mate set! Mate (pronounced ma-tea) is an Argentine customary, herbal tea-like drink shared by folks as a token of friendhsip. We had heard about this practice prior to traveling and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to try! I am a tea advocate therefore I loved it and will absolutely be buying my own at home! Univeristy of Pittsburgh meet mate!
