Dear readers, I'm sick. Not just sniffles sick, I have a combination of the flu and bronchitis paired with pretty sever dehydration. I think the plane really dried me out and I just never re-hydrated This post isn't about my susceptibility to Asian viruses, it's about how incredibly awesome the Korean healthcare system is.
So a little narration. On Monday evening I started to get a cough, which I really didn't think too much about because the air here is a lot colder than it is back home. By the time I went to bed though The cough seemed to have settled into my chest and was physically painful. I woke up in the morning and went to training, but after an hour in I felt too woozy and faint to sit through class. I told our trainer, Henry, who was really worried and told me I should go to the hospital. Korean's don't go to private care doctors like we do in the U.S. they just swing by the hospital if they start feeling sick. I really didn't want to go to the hospital for a variety of reasons. I was worried about the cost. I was worried how long it would take. Most of all I was really worried about being poked and prodded by someone who didn't speak my language.
Henry agreed to take me to the pharmacy and with over the counter drugs in my system I could wait a day and see if I got better. If I didn't, we agreed, I'd go to the doctors. By the evening I was feeling worse. I had a pretty high fever and my cough hadn't subsided. My wonderful husband, who can be so much smarter than me at times, dragged me across the street to the hospital.
The hospital is a lot like all the other hospitals I've been to. Clean and chemical smelling with a large waiting room when you enter. I immediately checked in at the front desk and they brought me back to the family practice section of the hospital. Since I had a health screening last week for my alien registration card, I was already in their system and didn't need any proof of identity. Their english was pretty good and we were able to communicate with no problem. I sat in another small waiting room and chatted with a nurse. We talked about Florida, teaching English for SDA and our new placement on Jeju island. She was super nice and put my mind at ease. My doctor was in a meeting, but she assured me he'd be there any minute. I waited for maybe 5 minutes before the doctor came in and brought me into his office. He spoke near perfect English and asked me what my symptoms were. He listened to my heart and lungs and took my blood pressure. He had been to Jacksonville and we talked about home. My blood pressure was high because I'm dehydrated and he told me it might be a good idea for me to stay at the hospital a couple days, but he let me go home with the promise of if I felt bad I would come right back. He said I could come see him at any time, day or night, and I got the impression that now this doctor was assigned to me and if I needed anything he would be there. It was comforting.
We were there for about 15 minutes all together. The visit cost 11,500 won (which equals $11.50).The nurse I chatted with lead us back, helped us sort through the money to pay and patted me on the back while we left saying "get better!" It was so nice, it really touched me heart. The doctor gave me a prescription which we could fill at the pharmacy in the hospital, but I needed to go back to the apartment and lay down so Lance took the prescription to the corner pharmacy for me. This is what I got:
The Korean health care system is a socialized system where the tax payers pay about half the cost of healthcare straight out of their paycheck. This means the cost of healthcare when you go to the hospital is very inexpensive. I found that going to the doctors was cheap and fast and I can't imagine why the United States hasn't adopted something as efficient as what they have in South Korea.
I found this article discussing the pros and cons of Korean Health Care. It's very insightful.
http://askakorean.blogspot.kr/2010/01/healthcare-system-in-korea.html
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