To start the day, we drove to Tigre and then boarded a boat on the river, which we took to a public PCP clinic accessible by dock. This health center operates as a 24 hour office with appointments. It covers a vast range of territory, with only one ambulance available. I found this astonishing considering how large the area traveled is- Tigre is a very large area. What was also interesting was how the office offered a boat ambulance, as well as a boat that operated as a mobile clinic for patients who would not be able to travel-which we got to tour. The boat had several rooms featuring a dentist chair and pharmacy. Additionally, the clinic covered everything from a dentist to gynecologist. I also noticed that they had a plethora of workout playground equipment outside that they were using for physical therapy. This demonstrates how they are allocating resources to efficiently use space. The town of Tigre is situated around the river, and I had never been to a place like that before. Getting the opportunity to learn more about how healthcare is operated in a town that relies on boat transportation showed how healthcare has to be adaptable.
Later in the day, we visited another public institution, San Sidros Hospital. We had a presentation on challenges the public sector faces such as emergency management and overall supervision and communication between the different government levels. Going into depth on funding, we discussed tradeoffs such as decentralization and a disorganized financial system. It seemed like it was hard to find solutions because they are missing data to analyze problems. This overall creates more problems for the health institution as well. Compared to a private hospital, there seems to be so many more issues with coordination as they are dealing with such a larger array of people and area. It was also important to note that they are actively trying to get people to go to PCPs instead of hospitals to save room. There are multiple reasons they are trying to do this, partly because it is cheaper than a hospital. However, due to problems of disorganization earlier mentioned, coordinating this transition is difficult.They also have not made any spending cuts. We also got to tour the ICU. Being a business student, I had never been present in an environment with this. It was eye opening to see how their ICU was one room with 14 beds-which is so different from the United States.
Overall, today was so engaging with learning more about the public health system and how it differs from the private sector in terms of priorities and funding.
