Personal experience: how and who is treated in America

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When I first arrived in Tucson, I had the strong impression that half the population of this Arizona city were doctors, the other half their patients. You have the right to ask why. Everything is very simple. The first few tours of the city were accompanied by comments from my husband: “This is St. Joseph's Hospital... this is Sainte-Marie's Hospital... this is the University Hospital... this is the “medical village” where private doctors practice.” And no statistics can take into account how many family clinics and dentists there are in this city!

Winter birds

On the streets and behind the wheel of cars in the daytime, the generation that was born in the thirties of the last century predominates. And what is interesting, the cars of these drivers have signs of almost all states of America. I asked my husband why there are so many of them.

It turned out that Arizona is a favorite vacation spot for American retirees in the fall, winter, and spring. They come here in October and leave the hospitable city in May. The local population came up with an apt name for them - “winter birds”. The entire medical industry of the city works to serve these patients.

Only well-off people can afford such a vacation. Accordingly, the quality of medical care is focused on them, and it is at a very high level.

My first visit to the doctor

In Russia, I did not go to doctors for years. When you had to visit a specialist, you had to get up for hours in the morning 5 and take a queue for a number. It did not always work out the first time. Such a system quickly discouraged the pursuit of their health. True, in recent years, after numerous reforms, paid medicine has flourished, but, unfortunately, not everyone can use its services.

But back to Tucson. My husband explained to me that he must take care of his health, and tomorrow we will go to the doctor of primary practice. Of course, I didn’t want to go anywhere, as there were no good reasons for visiting the doctor. We live outside the city, and there is a small clinic where general practitioners work to serve the local population. I went there with great skepticism.

At the reception desk I was immediately asked to show my health insurance, after which I had to fill out a lot of forms, then I was invited to see a doctor. This was a young girl trainee... “Well,” I thought, “here we are!”

However, this girl did something for an hour, for which I would spend more than one week in Russia. Only minor problems arose when she tried to find the correspondence of the names of our drugs to American counterparts. She came out with honor and from this situation.

It turned out that she has a pocket electronic guide to all drugs that are available today in most countries. After 5 minutes she found everything, and I got the recipes for my traditional medicines.

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Local Medicine

Another interesting observation about local medicine. In order to get to a specialist, you must first visit your primary care doctor, and he will already give a list of specialists from which you can choose who you need and get a referral to him. If the date of the visit to the doctor has already been scheduled, then in a day or two they will call you by phone and remind you of the visit.

A doctor's appointment begins exactly as much as you have noted in the direction. There are no queues. As a rule, in all medical institutions there are halls with easy chairs, TV, magazines, drinking water and ... a sterile clean toilet.

You can only buy medicine at a pharmacy if you have a prescription written out in your name. It’s not possible to just buy some serious medicine.

To the dentist

On the second day after the new year, I had a flux. The tooth did not hurt, and I rinsed my mouth with soda in the hope that it would cost. But after a couple of days my husband called the dentist, and we immediately went there.

I immediately took a panoramic picture of all the teeth, found a problematic tooth .... And then strange things start. Instead of doing something with this tooth, the dentist advised me to take antibiotics for a week, after that I had to visit a special clinic where they clean the canals (endodontist). Then I had to go back to my clinic where they would continue to work with me.

I did it all, in a couple of weeks I came back, without flux, with a clean channel and temporary filling. I naively believed that here I would be replaced with a temporary seal with a permanent seal and released in peace.

Instead, the doctor said that we would put a porcelain crown. Let's start here and now! Then I spent two and a half hours on the operating table, where I was grinding off a tooth and taking measurements for many times. It was not painful, but the sound of a drill familiar from childhood did not inspire optimism. Then they made a crown, the technician came next, drove the crown, put it on and let it go in peace.

I barely opened my mouth and asked if it was all? ... It turned out that I was only wearing a temporary crown, and I had to go to the fitting for a permanent one in 2 weeks. After a certain time, I came again, the crown was ready, it was safely put on the tooth.

When I saw the bill for this pleasure, my eyes darkened - 1250 bucks! (My health insurance did not cover this amount).

Now I visit the periodontologist every 4 of the month in this clinic, which monitors my teeth and gums.

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About serious diseases

I had to observe how American medicine works when a very serious disease is found in a patient.

In the evening the doctor called my husband and said that the biopsy showed that he had a tumor. It was like a bolt from the blue! What to do? Both are upset. After a couple of days, a date was scheduled with this doctor.

A prerequisite for the conversation was my presence. Dr. Hicks explained in detail what he found, described what treatment methods could be offered at this stage of the disease, provided the relevant literature and gave time for reflection.

We decided that the best thing in this case would be an operation. We called the doctor, he said that the next meeting will be with the surgeon who performs such operations.

We went to our next appointment where Dr. Hicks, Dr. Park (surgeon), my husband and I were there. The surgeon, a young man of about 30, said that only six months ago he became the first in Tucson to perform this type of operation (robot-assisted laparoscopy). The date for the operation was set. The waiting began.

... The operation lasted 4,5 hours. Then the husband was placed in the intensive care unit, after a couple of hours he was transferred to the rehabilitation ward. He already came to his senses and was able to call me on the phone (each patient has his own telephone set). After 12 hours after surgery, he was raised to his feet, and he began to walk. After 24 hours he was already at home ...

The cost of this operation (about 45 000 dollars) was fully covered by his health insurance. Now he is under the constant supervision of Dr. Hicks ...

And a little sad

Finally, I want to talk about one more sad experience of my acquaintance with local medicine.

Two years ago I went to see an endocrinologist for the first time. But he sent a young girl instead, who for about 15 minutes asked me with a serious look about my problems. When I told her everything and showed her, the doctor was still not there. With her ears red, she went in search of him and 10 minutes later this “miracle in feathers” arrived!

He said in pure Russian that he had a diploma from Harvard University, that they were well taught there, and so on. After that, I once again told him everything. He touched my thyroid gland (where there is a knot inside) with his finger and said that the gland feels fine, prescribed my usual medicine, and we parted on that.

Then every six months, the script was repeated: he did not give me any tests to check the condition of the gland. At the end of last year, my primary practitioner discovered that I had a very low thyroid hormone content, which is very dangerous. She made an adjustment in the dose of medication that I take, and I decided to look for a simpler specialist, without frills.

And yesterday I experienced the complete satisfaction of visiting a new doctor. By the way, he praised my therapist for correct and prompt solution of the problem. A new doctor quickly sent me to all sorts of tests, and wrote what I needed.

Let's hope that this time I was lucky with MY choice of the attending medical specialist ...

Printed with permission of the author. Original published on Tina Hellwig portal.

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