This morning we woke up and headed over as a group to Universidad Austral once again. The weather was chilly but it felt so nice to step outside to the fresh air and a new day in Buenos Aires. We headed over were greeted by everyone and headed upstairs to our first class taught by Dr. Josefina Medrano. It was a great class, I learned a lot about what the Argentinian healthcare system was like during COVID, how a small province such as Salta, operates in situations like these, and how people of her position have so much on their hands, and responsibilities to uphold. We got to learn a lot about the management experience and what it was like during this time for her while she was in office.

Afterward, we drove over to the first hospital we would visit for the day, which was Hospital Fernandez, a public hospital located in the city of Buenos Aires. When we first walked in I noticed a lot of crowding of people trying to enter, and waiting in line, as well as few people sitting in the front of the hospital outside. As we walked up the stairs I saw some people sitting on the stairs, some in waiting rooms, it was pretty busy. When we got our small overview of the history of this hospital it was really interesting to understand how it came to be one of the best public hospitals in Buenos Aires. They give all sorts of care from and focus on progressive care for the future. They focus heavily on nurses having around 529 nurses within the staff. It seemed they ran a really organization, the care seemed to be some of the best, and I was overall impressed with how welcoming the staff and doctors were as we walked by. I looked around and noticed they were definitely smaller rooms in comparison to the private hospital we saw after, as well as the fact that the private hospital also seemed a little bit cleaner looking and not as filled up as the public hospital did.

Moving on to the private hospital we saw which was Los Arcos, we got some information regarding the hospital and how they work through Swiss Medical group. Our instructor was very welcoming and was great at explaining their system and what they faced during covid as well and was able to give us some insight into both sides as he used to run the insurance side of things. One thing I noticed as I walked in was that it looked extremely nice, very new, and more organized then the public hospital we had just come from. There were no cracked windows, no people sitting on the floor, no beds in the hallways. This was really eye opening for me and I think it was good that we saw both hospitals right after one another. The suites in Los Arcos looked like hotels, it was truly unbelievable! Another thing I found interesting was even though being really nice and being private coverage, you could stay in Los Arcos and get care, even without insurance, and it still be at a low cost compared to the states. There are about 1400 employees in this hospital most also being nurses.

In between the hospital visits, we went to a Bio, a vegetarian restaurant for lunch, and I had veggie lasagna which I have never had anything like it before and it was definitely different, but it was so good! It was definitely a great day to learn a lot about the hospital systems and more about Buenos Aires!