Today was a very busy but educational kind of day! We started off the day by going to Sanatorio Mater Dei. This hospital was the best one yet! It was super clean, and we got to see all of their different floors, such as pediatrics and labor and delivery. One thing I noticed about this hospital is that it was very clean, and there were not a ton of people in the waiting room, so it felt very organized. Comparing this to yesterday when we went to La Matanza, it was much cleaner and a lot of their technology was more updated. I thought it was really smart of Sanatorio Mater Dei to have a nonprofit outpatient clinic because those patients can then get admitted to the hospital for surgery, which is where they make most of their money.

After that, we went to Hospital Fernández, where we heard from a retired director from the hospital. He gave us a brief history and shared a lot of statistics about the hospital, like the mortality rate and the critical care mortality rate. These numbers were really good for a public hospital, with only a 4.9% mortality rate for regular care. We were also shown around the hospital, which was very different from Sanatorio Mater Dei. The last hospital of the day was Clínica Bazterrica. This hospital was different from each of the others, but it was most similar to the first hospital we visited today.

These hospitals all have one main goal, which is to take care of patients. However, the private versus public healthcare delivery systems have many differences. The private hospitals appeared to have more resources, along with better facilities, such as updated machines and more modern structures. The public healthcare systems seemed to be more focused on serving a larger number of people and providing accessible care to a bigger population. Even though both systems operate differently, they still share the same purpose of improving patient care and helping their communities. Visiting all of these hospitals allowed me to better understand how healthcare systems can vary depending on funding, resources, and patient demand, while still working toward the same overall mission.