Today was our final hospital visit. We are on day 10 of our trip and I cant believe how fast its gone by. We started the day heading to Austral and meeting with Dr. Josefina Medrano, the former minister of health in the Salta Province. She talked about the environment of Salta and the challenges it faced. Salta’s main industries are agriculture, mining, oil and tourism although it is still one of the poorest provinces in the country. It can be hard for people to receive care as the rugged environment makes it hard to travel. One photo that stood out to me was one of a physician on a horse traveling to Salta to treat patients. We also talked about the process she used in order to make decisions, one of which was to not overthink and approach complex problems with a simple look in order to not overthink them and find effective solutions.

Next, we hopped on the bus and headed to Hospital Fernandez, another public hospital in Buenos Aires. We met with the hospital’s director, Dr. Previgliano, where he educated us on the history of the hospital.  The hospital has had 11% improvement in schedule and demand. He also walked us through the hospital’s pandemic management. We also got walked through the hospitals budgeting with 69.7% persona;, 15.8% consumer goods, and 11.8% basic services. We then got a tour of the hospital and got to walk through its ICU. Finally, we finished off the day touring Swiss Medical Hospital where we went through an operating room. The hospital was extremely nice and up to date with modern finishes. 

Today taught me alot about the social gradients of Argentina and how they compare to the United States. In both the United States and Argentina, people with higher income, education, and social status tend to have better health, but the reasons and effects differ. In the U.S., health differences are bigger because healthcare is expensive and not equally available to everyone, especially for people with low income or from minority groups. In Argentina, the government provides free public healthcare, which helps reduce some of the health gaps. However, there are still problems, especially in poorer or rural areas. So while both countries show that social status affects health, the way it happens and how serious it is depends on the country’s healthcare system and level of inequality. After these lessons, we walked around the Florida Strip and window shopped, and finally got dinner of empanadas!