Today was a very educational day as we went to our host university, Austral, as well as we traveled to 2 different hospitals. 

The day started early as we listened to Dr. Josefina Medrano, ex minister of health for the province of Salta, describe her position and role. One of the things that was quite interesting was that Salta, being a more rural province, has 43 “health posts.” These are outposts that reach the smallest parts of the rural town with basic medical supplies and no human resources. However, the workers from larger internal hospitals come to the outputs on a schedule in case anyone needs medical attention. In Salta only about ⅕ of the population uses the public system compared to 35% (national average) not because it is cheaper, but because it can be hard to reach. The difference in the public sector here and private sector is that the public is entirely free and financed through taxes, however private coverage must be paid out of pocket.

To further explore this we traveled to Fernandez Hospital in Palermo, Buenos Aires. Here we listened to Dr. Ignacio Previgliano, retired Head of the Intensive Care Unit, describes the background of the hospital and then give us a tour. The hospital was interesting in the fact that architecturally and aesthetically the hospital was not attractive at all, yet it was deemed the best public hospital in Buenos Aires. While the hospital seemed a little bit run-down, it was still full of patients everywhere. This would make sense because public health care is completely free in Argentina.

Finally, we got to see the Swiss Medical Group’s main Buenos Aires hospital. This is the largest private medical company in Buenos Aires, and the hospital was incredible. You can see similarities to a nicer American hospital such as CHOP or UPMC. The private care really catered the the patients in terms of housing and quality of service. Finally, the private hospitals run more as a business, including Swiss Medical Group. We learned from Dr. Jorge Lantos, ex Head of Insurance, that Swiss Medical actually loses money on the hospital side of things, however they are also an insurance group for not only themselves, but they contract with other hospitals, unions, and more in order to make money.

It was very interesting seeing how differently the hospitals were run and how large of a factor the financial aspect plays at the highest levels of management in these hospitals.