Day 6 was back to business! We got up bright and early to head to the University of Austral Pilar campus. We arrived there at around 9:30 and had a light breakfast before getting into our lectures. Our speakers were the CEO of the hospital, Dr. Marcelo Pellizzari, the operations director, Mariano Pelorosso, and the director for the people, Juan Manuel Labado. It was interesting to hear what they had to say about Austral’s private hospital in comparison to what we heard about Los Arcos (Swiss Medical).
Dr. Pellizzari spoke of his five main goals; person center, patient center, innovation and technology, quality of management, and sustainability. He explained that Austral often sees an influx of complex patients, which requires a highly qualified staff to handle these problems. It is very person centered. As for patient centered, he explained that the hospital staff is always trying their best to improve attitude and care towards the patients to improve their experiences. The patients are the center of the scene, they are a part of the team in the hospital. It is extremely important to all work together. As for aiding innovation, research is required. Although Austral and Los Arcos are both private hospitals, they do not receive any money for the government, not even research funding. Therefore, they have to use part of their budget to dedicate it to research to not only find the newest, strongest methods and ideas, but to overall improve patient quality and care. In comparison to the United States hospitals, most are granted large sums of money to donate towards research. Therefore, the medical staff is up to date on newest protocols, methods, and technology to have the highest quality of healthcare.
It was made aware that patients coming from other countries are extremely common because healthcare is a right here in Argentina. For example, many mothers from Russia come to Argentina to give birth to their babies simply because it is free and they do not want to lose all their money when they are having a child. From what I can tell, Swiss Medical did not go into detail on foreigners coming to their private hospital for care. It was more specific to the needs of Argentines and how to address them with the highest quality of care. At Austral, they have a total of 6 clinics with 221 beds. In comparison to Los Arcos, Dr. Pellizzari explained how there are two types of patients that come to this hospital. There are the community patients that stay for about two to three days for mild conditions. Then, there are the complex patients that require surgery and postoperative care for about ten days. The average length of stay for a patient at Austral is about five days.
Although Los Arcos and Austral Hospital are similar in many ways due to being private rather than a public institute. They take insurance and charge via insurance for their services. They do not have a fixed budget they receive, they have to responsibly map out where to direct their money and what is most important in the hospital. What I noticed and really loved, especially as a nursing student, is both hospitals always put their patients first. It is not about the money, but rather the top care and service patients receive while they are in these privatized hospitals.
After touring Austral Hospital, we had a student mixer and lunch with some of the students. We had empanadas (again) that never failed to hit the spot. Niyati, Maggie, and I spoke to two sisters studying business at Austral. They were super sweet and I learned a lot about Argentine culture and schooling just from a quick conversation. I’m glad we got the chance to meet some of the students and share our perspectives.
We ended the day by heading to San Isidro hospital and was given a lecture by the secretary of public health, Maria Richards. She spoke of her experience as a registered nurse, who got her MBA and became hospital administration. I thought it was super interesting how she compared statistics in San Isidro’s province to the city of Pittsburgh. We have a super similar population size, but San Isidro is much smaller!
Learning and seeing the private and public hospitals has been such a rewarding experience so far. I can’t wait to see more, especially the clinics in the future. Stay tuned for tomorrow on the ranch!
