Hello everyone! Thanks for stopping by for day 10 of Buenos Aires. We made two main stops today for our day in Buenos Aires. First we met with Dr. Flor Ledesma, who is an executive manager for the executive union. This union consists of executive’s and higher ups in all types of companies in Argentina. She described the social health system (union) as complex but very generous. I would agree with this statement given the price difference compared to the US. ABout 53% of Argentinans use some sort of union coverage for healthcare. Dr. Ledesma works specifically for a private healthcare company called Medife, who has their own hospitals, insurance agency, and union, all under a large umbrella. We learned that only the insurance company makes a substantial amount of money to keep the other branches afloat. While all of these groups are under the same parent company, the patients have the ability to choose if they w3ant to use a different insurance company or hospital, even if they are under the Medife plan. This further emphasizes the power of the people.

After our visit here, we went to ICBA which is a cardiovascular hospital in Buenos Aires. This hospital was absolutely incredible. The head of the hospital designed it to look like an airport lounge and it felt incredibly luxurious. They only focus on cardiovascular health, but they have many departments within the hospital. We had a lecture with Dr. Mariano Benzadon (Director of Patient Experience) who really emphasized the care and consideration for the patient experience at ICBA. They also implemented a matrix structure with vertical and horizontal leaderships, so every person reports to multiple bosses on an indifferent topics. This helps the doctors to learn and grow as much as possible while also improving their personal skill set. This is known as one of the nicest private hospitals in the whole country and was recently purchased by the medical giant Swiss Medical. 

After the visit to ICBA, we finished the day by visiting MALBA (Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires). There were three large floors to this gorgeous modern museum. The featured artist was a woman from Brazil who focused on African-American Woman suffering. Some of the pieces were incredible and the contrast among rooms was amazing to look at.