Wednesday, January 4, 2012

At least you don’t have to ask for a private bed…

Today we visited AIIMS (All India Institute for Medical Sciences) which is the largest and most highly regarded academic medical center in India. My favorite part of our day with AIIMS was the tour. We started out by going through the pediatric ER. It was heart-breaking to see the children waiting to receive care. Next we went through the surgical ER. It was the size of a large gymnasium, filled with beds spaced only a couple feet apart. What stood out to me the most was that our tour guide, who is a medical student at AIIMS, was very proud of the fact that they only put one patient in each bed at AIIMS. My thought was how can you fit more than one patient per bed? Apparently other hospitals put up to 3-4 patients per bed. It made me think about how, in the US, there is a high demand for private rooms. We take it for granted that we will have a bed to ourselves. The throughput at AIIMS is very impressive. They treat about 10,000 patients each day, and inpatient fees are around $1 per day (versus in the US where inpatient fees are around $2500 per day). While the US hospital experience allows patients to have more space and privacy, is that worth the extra $2499?

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