We started off the day by making our way to Palermo, which is a main neighborhood in the city of Buenos Aires. It is clear that it is a nicer part of the city; it is very clean and I loved the architecture. We got to see three different hospitals today.
Our first stop was at Sanatoria Mater Dei, a private catholic hospital. It was 5 floors and was organized so well-structurally and also in terms of management. I found it interesting that this hopsital placed a lot of emphasis on mother-child care such as pediatrics and maternity/delivery-which we also got to tour. They also strictly follow WHO and patient safety laws-which they were a lot more stern on what we got to see on this tour unlike our public hospital tour yesterday. This hospital is focused not on luxury care but quality and morals (although in my opinion the facilities were honestly luxurious compared to any public institution seen so far). It is clear that being a private institution, they have more access to money and materials. They are able to focus on patient quality and give out surveys to every admitted person they take care of inside the hospital. I enjoyed getting to see their visual charts that depicted different patient/funding relationships.
However, when discussing the salaries doctors make, I was astonished to find out that it is significantly low in Buenos Aires, and doctors will hold two jobs usually; they will work at a public hospital in the day and a private one at night, having extremely long hours.
We then visited a public hospital- Hospital Fernandez. This was by far the nicest public hospital that we have visited so far. This one was also well orgnaized by department. The retired hospital director gave us a presentation that included an overview, as well as big changes that were implemented after Covid. We also earned about their budgeting; they get told a monthly budget from only the municipality that they can try to fight on for an increase. This is so different from a private hospital and affects their delivery system because they are putting more time and energy into negotiating with the government, which takes away from other aspects.
After this, we took a lunch break in Palermo where I got to try an amazing pasta dish. After this, we made our way to yet another private clinic, Clinica Bazterrica. This clinic was very well organized and very busy. We also got to see their maternity ward. It felt very similar to Sanatoria Mater Dei. All in all, today was a very eventful and packed day! As this trip progresses it is becoming easier to differentiate between public and private hospitals.
