Hospital Orientation

Our first day of orientation/work began with the driver picking us up promptly and courteously. We were accompanied by another volunteer couple whose last day was today. They came from Washington state and knew our friends who practiced for a while in Kennewick. Small world.

The hospital is proud of its free care mission and is a major teaching center for medical trainees. Patients queue in an outside waiting area. Previously it was first come first serve, but they have instituted a triage nurse to prioritize by severity

The organization has an affiliated fee for service practice across the street offering many of the same services on a sliding scale of charges, depending on income. This helps subsidize the hospital.

The reading area is in the same room as the CT control area. The radiologist inputs demographics and types the report, making sure to change the paper to the appropriate letterhead reflecting CT or plain film report. Chest XRays are one view and cost $7. They try to save the patients money by not getting a second view. Nominal charges for head CT $70, and abdominal CT $400, going up to $700 if contrast is used. It didn't look like most of the patients could afford this, and many people go into debt or sell land to pay for the costs of treatment.

The CT is a four slice GE unit donated by USAID, as was much of the equipment in the departments.Review of the CT scans is done on the acquisition monitor. There is a radiologist on call, and films are driven to the radiologist for a reading. This is an uncommon event. Teleradiology is off the radar. 

Kanitha is the ultrasound phyician at the clinic. She spent two months in Chicago learning mammography. They do about 120 exams per year (not a misprint).

Mong is the radiologist I worked with today at the clinic.Most of the radiologists have an outside practice, and work part time for the hospital or clinic.

Margie's input is absent from today's posting due to acute gastroenteritis.Her first day experience will have to await her recovery I spent part of her recuperative time in the hotel lobby playing with Maya, sitting in front, the daughter of the owners, and a friend.

 

Dinner was Vietnamese with local beer and ambience. Tissues rather than napkins are on the tables.Eating utensils are served in a glass of hot water, to demonstrate their cleanliness and sterility, or at least that is the theory.

The Ban Xeo (Vietnamese pancake/crepe) is one of my mainstay foods at home, but pales in comparison to the real version as shown above. $5 including beer.