Today was an early day with an 8 am bus ride to Austral University in Pilar. This campus was completely different than their city campus and it looked very similar to a rural college campus in America. The Austral campus in Pilar serves as an undergraduate school and Hospital Austral is on the campus where nursing and biomedical majors spend their day learning and practicing their skills. When we arrived to the hospital we were met by Marcelo Pellizzari, the medical director of Hospital Austral. He has worked at Hospital Austral since the late 90s when it was built and he discussed many intricacies of the private system. This was an interesting lecture because we also heard a lecture from the medical director at Swiss Medical and their focuses were slightly different. At Hospital Austral, he was focused on the care aspect of the hospital detailing some challenges and strategies, while the medical director at Swiss Medical focused on the business side of the hospital during his lecture.

After the lecture, we toured the hospital which was also interesting to compare to the Swiss Medical hospital (Los Arcos) since these are the only two private hospitals we have visited. Hospital Austral seemed much more care focused with many offerings that Swiss Medical didn’t have such as organ transplants and complex surgeries. As we saw on day 3, Los Arcos had luxurious suite style hospital rooms for their patients and comfort of patients seemed like the top priority there. Hospital Austral is also an educational hospital for their students which contributes to the emphasis on care and the advancement of it. It is a great environment for aspiring nurses and doctors to learn and get experience in a renowned hospital in Argentina.

After our tour of the hospital, we walked over to the undergraduate building where we got swarmed by hundreds of mosquitoes. Once we made it out of the trenches, we had lunch with some students at Austral University which was a fun time. We talked to a student in the nursing school and one studying design so they had two different perspectives. It was interesting to see the nursing student’s experience in the hospital everyday and the design student who interacted with the other students and staff on campus. They also had many things to say about Argentina, the differences in their college system ,and their fun experiences traveling.

We finished the day by going to San Isidro Public Hospital where we met with Maria Richards, the public health planner for the hospital and a registered nurse who formerly worked at Hospital Austral. It was interesting to hear her lecture because we have not spoken to anyone with experience planning the execution of a hospital’s system and the challenges that are associated with it. She also discussed her reasoning for leaving the private system to pursue a career in public health and stated that most Argentinians have an aspiration to work in the public system during their career. This goes back to the idea of solidarity and taking care of fellow Argentinians and having a compassionate heart for them. Finally, we toured the hospital where we visited the Orthopedic and ICU departments. San Isidro Public Hospital serves one of the richer municipalities in the Buenos Aires province so it is a high quality hospital. However, while it is an advanced hospital, Hospital Austral has access to more funding so it had better facilities and technology. It was another great day in Argentina and I am excited to go to a Gaucho Show tomorrow.