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As government employees here in Korea we are covered by general insurance for a small percentage of our monthly income. When I was having problems I naturally didn't want to visit the doctor because I thought it would be even more of a pain in the ass since I don't speak Korean, but I also thought it might be an interesting cultural experience. Plus, I felt like shit. I had no idea where to go so I asked my coT for help. It turns out that Koreans are very nosy and like to know everything. Back at home it might be impolite to ask why someone has to go to the doctor but apparently here it is considered public information. I didn't have much of a problem telling my coT because I am pretty close with her and I needed her to translate my symptoms into Korean in case the doctor didn't speak English. Little did I know that when I got back after my appointment the whole staff would know and would be asking me questions and worrying about me for the next few weeks. This annoyed me quite a bit. I will now think twice (or three or four times) before telling anyone in my school about any medical issues I might be experiencing.
Koreans call all medical establishments "hospitals" so when you would need to see the doctor back home you go to the hospital here. This was a bit disturbing at first when I told my coT about my problem and she asked if I needed to go to the hospital. I told her "no," that it wasn't that serious but then she explained that when Koreans are sick they go to the hospital. She contacted the "Dream Hospital" which is located just a 15 minute walk from my school and scheduled an appointment for me. The Dream Hospital is a private medical provider that actually resembles a hospital, as it has many different medical branches all in one place. I soon realize that no one working at the check-in counters or the information booths speaks fluent English. I give the receptionist my translated symptoms and Korean ID card and somehow decipher from her gestures that I need to go to the second floor. One of the nurses upstairs decides to kind of help me out and ends up being my girl every following visit. I'm sure this is because she spoke the most English which consisted of a repertoire of about 8 words. So I wait for at least an hour, even though I have an appointment, to see the doctor. Once I go into the consultation room I explain my symptoms to the doctor who speaks a bit of medical English. He tells me he knows what's wrong and in five minutes (The Korean calls this "five minute diagnosis") I am out of his office at the prescription printing counter/cashier. She tells me it will be a little over 5,000 won for the consultation (around $4.50). This was incredible to me. I didn't even give the hospital any of my medical insurance information and it came out to under $5.00. This made me question healthcare in the U.S even more. I did find it a bit weird though that they didn't take any of my vitals and the doctor could tell what was wrong with me from a 3 minute explanation in another language. Anyways, I head to the pharmacy next door and give the pharmacist my prescription. I'm expecting to wait for at least 20 minutes, as it would be back home. It is also pretty crowded so I assume I'll be there for awhile. I'm astonished when in about 5 minutes the pharmacist calls my name, explains how to take the pills and asks for 6,000 won (about $5.00). Again, I never gave any insurance information to the pharmacy. This experience creates even more disdain for American pharmaceuticals. But that's another rant.
The prescription works but it turns out that the ailment decides to come back...4 more times. This means that I have the pleasure of visiting the Dream Hospital probably about 6 times in the next month and a half for tests and stuff. I end up having to take 8 different antibiotics a day for 4 weeks. The biggest problem for me is the fact that every time I go see the doctor he simply prescribes me the same antibiotics for yet another week and does not give me any explanation as to what I have or how to prevent it from coming back. After all the visits and different tests they decide to perform I end up spending about 180,000 won ($150.00). It's very frustrating to me at this point that because of the communication barrier I am not able to ask or understand exactly what I have or what I can do to keep it from happening again.
When the problem comes back for the 5th time (!) I decide I need to try something else. I begin looking up medical facilities with international clinics where at least some of the employees speak English and cater to foreigners. It turns out that most of the university hospitals here in Daegu have international clinics but their hours are limited. This means that you must go during work hours or run the risk of really pissing them off, which I may very well have done. I arrived at Yeoungnam University Hospital at 5:00pm, 30 minutes before closing. The ladies at the International counter tell me I am very late and begin frantically filling out papers and running around the hospital asking the doctors to hold on for a few minutes to be able to see me. I feel really bad that they are doing this all for me but relieved that I had actually found people that speak my language. The young nurse who is running around asks me to fill out some very short paper work and then instructs me to follow her. She takes my blood pressure, which provides me with small feelings of relief since the other doctor did nothing of the sort, and accompanies me into the doctor's office to talk about my symptoms. The nurse is a really sweet young woman who, after chatting her up a bit, tells me that she studied in Vancouver, Canada. She speaks almost perfect English and seems very sympathetic and nonjudgmental which makes me feel much more comfortable with the whole situation. Throughout the whole process she acts as a guide and translator for the few doctors that I talk to. Literally running through the hospital we make it in time for me to complete the whole process in about 30 minutes. The upside to going to the public hospital was that I could finally communicate my problems and concerns to a woman who spoke good English and with whom I was comfortable. It seemed like she genuinely wanted to help me as much as she possibly could. The negatives were the price (consultation, test and prescription were about double the cost of the private) and that the doctor gave me about as much preventative instruction as the doctor at the Dream Hospital. The doctor was a young man who could have been just out of medical school. When I asked him multiple times about prevention methods he pretty much told me, without actually admitting it, that he had no idea and would Wikipedia it and get back to me in a week. Obviously this was pretty frustrating to me.
The coolest part was the futuristic prescription printing robot (I guess you could just call it a machine). All you had to do was scan your receipt, hit a few buttons and your prescription was being printed within seconds.
Although I had issues with both hospitals, for me the most important thing was being able to communicate and feeling comfortable enough with the nurses and doctors to express myself. Even though it was more expensive I will definitely return to Yeongnam U. Hospital, mostly because of the sweet little nurse that helped me out a lot. I also think that it would be beneficial to check out other university hospitals with international clinics. Consulting with English-speaking doctors and nurses is essential in a non-Korean-speaker's attempt to heal.
Paz
So did this change your view of our healthcare system even a little? So you paid $5.....that is great but he didn't even do anything more than guess. I feel like here we are very lucky to have doctors that really investigate your symptoms. I know there is corruption in the medical field. But, I will always be thankful for our doctors and our country. I bet if you were here....you wouldn't have gone back 5 times.
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