tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post2704353137890129125..comments2024-03-29T11:29:58.276+09:00Comments on BigHominid's Hairy Chasms: reasons not to like Korean health careKevin Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328790917314282058noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-38028103661401947692016-02-05T07:52:08.747+09:002016-02-05T07:52:08.747+09:00Your Korean is far better than mine but is it poss...Your Korean is far better than mine but is it possible that the nurse was asking for a referral from a clinic? You know, in the way that a General Practitioner would refer a person with a serious/unusual injury to a specialist. That is the only way a referral makes sense to me. Surprises Aplentyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14178013380916292778noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-34700696303877989772016-02-04T21:22:11.787+09:002016-02-04T21:22:11.787+09:00Partly luck, yes, but not just environmental facto...Partly luck, yes, but not <i>just</i> environmental factors, either. The local hospital that I went to when I was living in Hayang was filthy, for example, and the equipment in that place was run-down and outdated-looking. One of my coworkers down at Daegu Catholic talked about how one nurse (at the same hospital) spilled part of his blood sample all over his paperwork after she'd removed some of his blood. Korean hospitals have never inspired trust in me.<br /><br />The only decent medical recommendation/referral I've ever gotten has been from Sperwer, when he recommended his dentist to me—a lady in the Banpo neighborhood who worked on Koreans and expats, mainly French folks. She was professional and gave quality care, although you may remember my tale of the 90-minute wisdom-tooth extraction—a procedure that my Korean colleagues told me normally takes 10-15 minutes.<br /><br />A hospital is a system of systems, and part of the hospital experience is the bureaucracy. Not to say that it's all roses in the US: Mom's cancer care required a ton of annoying paperwork, and the record-keeping was pretty shitty. (One of the few things I give Dad credit for is his management of that paperwork. He caught a ton of errors made by the hospitals and clinics Mom attended.) But this doesn't excuse Korean hospitals for adding unnecessary layers of difficulty to fairly straightforward procedures.<br /><br />When I do finally get very sick, I hope I'm in the States and well insured.Kevin Kimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01328790917314282058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-39105829287200041432016-02-04T20:47:35.632+09:002016-02-04T20:47:35.632+09:00Yeah, you should definitely just go to a 내과. 종합병원 ...Yeah, you should definitely just go to a 내과. 종합병원 are always going to be a bureaucratic hassle (although I've never been asked for a referral letter, so that's a bit weird).<br /><br />Also--and I know we've had this conversation before--but it seems to me here that your beef is not so much with Korea's health care system itself as it is with Korea's bureaucratic culture. This is most evident at big hospitals, but smaller clinics are usually (at least in my experience) much better. I just often get the impression that you factor in a lot of environmental factors when evaluating the Korean health care system, and that leads to a very negative outlook. I know you can quote horror stories, but my own experience has been overwhelmingly positive, so every post like this leaves me confused. How could our experiences be so different? Is it just luck?Charleshttp://www.liminality.orgnoreply@blogger.com