Adventures in Paris

Bonjour! Yesterday was pretty busy for me but after learning that the Lourve was closed on Tuesdays, I took the Metro to Basilique Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart Basilica). It is a really beautiful church although the design remains a point of contention among the French, particularly Parisians. Some people really love the architecture while other Parisians balk at the structure. One Parisian is said to have remarked negatively calling it "a lunatic's confectionary dream", a reference to the white dollop like spires. No matter what side of the fence you're on, it certainly is magnificent. The pictures that I have are actually ones that I shouldn't have taken because I entered through another door, totally missingthe no camera sign. After an admonishment from the attendant, I put my camera away but I was able to keep the 2 pictures that I took. I have plenty of the exterior of the church.

The Arc de Triomphe was my next stop, a military monument for the French. The monument just happened to be by the Champs-Elysees, so I definitely had to stroll down the strip. Mercedes, Toyota, and Renault all have store fronts down the Champs, you can go in and look at all the cool cars that they have. I tooks some pictures of the hybrid concept cars, including one that showed how the engine and battery worked. That one's for you to see dad!

After dinner I had to hunker down and take a Supply Chain test, which is around the time I posted the blurb on Staggstuff blog. Dinner was a great pizza with tuna, olives, giant capers, and peppers. I haven't had a good European pizza with fresh tuna in like 12 years, it was delicious. After that, I finished the night off with a café au lait, nice!

This morning I went to Louvre to see as much as I could of what was left of the Greek and Roman sculptures. I also walked through the Mesopotamian, and Egyptian galleries. There was sooo much walking, but I took plenty of pictures. Jen was right you could spend a week in there and still not have seen everything. The Louvre is amazing, it's one heck of a museum!

Well I will continue my day and probably get something to eat. I’m planning on doing something at night, like a jazz club or something. I might goto Buddah Bar, that should be really kool. It's mostly a lounge with a dj that mixes some great stuff. We had some of it playing inside the house at the graduation party. Then its off to San Antonio, bright and early! Love you guys, see ya'll soon.

Recap on Paris

Sorry for the delayed posting guys, but I've been actually fairly busy here in Paris. So this next post is over the last 2 days and today.

On Saturday when we arrived in Paris we hit the ground running. First we took the Metro to Notre Dame, then had a very long walk along the beautiful Seine. Notre Dame is incredibly beautiful! After the Eiffel Tower, we proceeded to the Champs-Elysees and the Arc du Triomphe. When we got back into Paris we rested for a bit and then explored the city at night. There are so many great lounges, clubs and cafes that we just kept hopping from one place to another. People are just getting ready to go out around midnight. Needless to say we stayed up with the Parisians!

Sunday began at a slow French pace, we actually kind of slept in! Breakfast began at a small café near the hotel. The quiche Lorraine was amazing, silky and fluffy, and had an almost a custard like consistency. I had café Americano which is like a double shot of espresso but a little bigger, it was really rich and good. With full bellies, we had the energy and determination to visit Chateau Versaille.

We took the train through the French countryside and reached Chateau Versaille one hour before close. We went as fast as we could and took as many pictures as possible, in the short time we had. King Louis XIV built this palace as a hunting lodge. As you can tell from the pictures, it is a huge estate with an elaborate décor. King Louis XIV was called the “Sun King”, which is why the image of Helios, the Greek god of the sun, is found throughout the palace.

It started to rain as we were heading to the train station back to Paris. We had dinner at a nice little restaurant, one of the few that were open at 7pm on a Sunday. The steak au pouive was really good. Someone ordered the hamburger and it was a meat patty with an egg on it, definitely not like McDonald's.

After the train ride back, we visited the memorial that contains the remains of Napoleon. Unfortunately it was closed, but we had a great view of the monument and the city from there.

Late night crepes were something to be had before my friends in the class left Paris. A local man, originally from Iran, has been in Paris for 30 years. He works a full time job and owns this little café where he makes amazing crepes. So we ate crepes filled with nutella, a drizzle of gran marnier, and sliced almonds! This was a great late night snack before bed!

Today I was able to catch some breakfast with a little drinking chocolate before heading to the Lourve. I spent nearly all day there, and still feel the need to go back. I had to see Mona Lisa and Venus di Milo the classic pieces. Anyway this is getting really long so I'd better stop.

More tommorrow, Ciao!

Transylvania on Friday the 13th!

Maybe it was cosmic forces that brought us to the region of Transylvania on this day, but we had a great time touring the casltes in the region! Our tour guide mentioned that the real meaning of this spooky name was "Beautiful land beyond the forest", not some dark place.

In this beautiful land we toured a very "new" castle, only about 100 years old, done in a roccocco style with extremely elaborate woodwork and ornate sculptures. This was castle Peles, and it was the first castle to be built with electircal wiring! This castle was under Communist ownership, and just recently was transferred to the descendants of the royal family.

Our lunch was in a kool tavern like place where they served excellent Chorba (soup) and made a show of serving the mass quantities of grilled meat. The Romanian diet seems to be meat, sausage, potatoes, and more meat. This is proving to be not the best diet and is already presenting as a problem because of the rate of heart disease and diabetes in the population.

Our afternoon caslte tour was at Bran Castle, home of Vlad the Impaler also know as Dracula. His family came from the order of the Dragon which is Dracula in Romanian. His reputation is based on the macabre acts that he ordered to be performed on the captured Turkish soldiers. The castle is much more plain, and utilitarian in nature without the extragvagance of the first castle because they were always at war with the Ottoman army.

We finally banqueted into the night at a local tavern, what a surprise, where we were entertained by folk dancers. The food was great and the wine was good, after dining until about 11pm we headed back to Sinai to depart for Paris at 3am. This is why my post is so late....sorry Becky I know you are very content driven!

Ciao Bucharesti, Hello Sinai!

This morning's activity was another lecture series at the University of Economic Studies Bucharest. Our first speaker was an academician who shared the place that Romania's healthcare system has in the EU. There are many low rankings when it comes to the epidemiological area such as diabetes, TB, syphilis. Among some other challenges that Romania faces, it is the emigration of clinicians to other countries in the EU for more lucrative career opportunities. She shared the results of other Health Assesments which brought to light more issues that the country needs to work on. The picture on the right shows me giving her a token of appreciation on behalf of the OLLU students. She received a Cross Pen from OLLU, a corporate finance book, and a small monetary gift.

The second speaker was quite interesting, Dr. Turculet is the Director of the Medical staff at the hospital that we visited yesterday. In Romania the hospitals used to be run by physicians only. However with upward spiraling healthcare costs, administrators have had to get involved in hospital management. Doctors who are administrators must revoke their right to practice to stay in hospital administration. This is kind of strange, and not the case in the US. You can certainly pick up on the tension that exists between administrators and physicians due to this law. I can understand the separation in a sense, however it is an extreme solution. There must be positive synergies between these groups instead of animosity. The method of reimbursement in Romania is fee for service, and there is no incentive to pursue efficiency and quality for patient care. The doctor was a bit put off when asked about quality improvement initiatives, and the possibility of TQM or lean operations implementation in the future. Interestingly enough, he felt that hospital based medicine would work for Romania in the mean time. There was no concern for length of stay, increasing patient turnover or revenue cycle maximization. I think this reflects the basic level that their healthcare system is at right now.

After this lecture, we had lunch and headed off to a meeting at the US Embassy. The US officials wamrly received us and shared some great information regarding the economic situation in Romania. The growth has been so fast that there may be a bubble in certain industries such as housing and the workforce. Romania has experienced a "brain drain" of sorts and will face a shortage of clinicians, professionals and skilled labor in the near future. Wages are increasing to alleviate that, however inflation can result if this is not handled correctly. Doctors and nurses in Romania have experienced their desired salary increases, but administrators haven't. This just goes to show the disconnect that exists in this area, however the Minister of Health and other officials are not giving up on this battle. The information was extremely valuable because we could get more accurate and neutral interpretation on certian key indicators.

I'll cut this short, because I know this is long. We took a 2 hour bus ride to Sinai, a small city in the Carpathian mountains, and a beautiful place! The hotel we're staying in is about 150 yrs old and was desinged by Gustave Eiffel, who also was the architect for the Eiffel Tower! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Bucharest!

Sorry guys for not posting yesterday, we were very busy with speakers and tours but I'm posting bright and early this morning!

We started off yesterday morning by visiting the Bucharest University of Economics Romania. The Vice-Rector (VP equivalent) gave our group a warm welcome and introduction in a round table setting. This University is quite large with a total of 45,000 students worldwide and 23,000 on campus. After touring their newly renovated library, our lecture series began. Let me preface this with the fact that our lecturers were prominent members in Romania, and we were so fortunate to be in their presence. Among them was a physician who has a controlling interest in one of Romania's 11 private hospitals. She was able to shed some light into the struggles that their helathcare system faced from a clinician's perspective. However she also emphasized that they only take paying patients at their hospital, due to financial difficulties obtaining reimbursement from the government.

Anpther note worthy speaker presented some information on behalf of the President of the National Insurance Fund who was in the room, but could not speak English. The speaker and the President are solely responsible for allocating the funds for reimbursement, like CMS. They make the reimbursement fee schedule, the drug list and all contracts are negotiated every year, making long term planning nearly impossible! When asked what would happen if they ran out of money for the year, they indicated that there are special provisions in place for additional funding but that may be too late! Talk about a stressful job!

After the Q&A with the policy makers, we went to lunch at Pizza Hut....kind of an unusual choice for Romania. Hit the spot though!

The most important speaker of the day was the Minister of Health for Romania. He humbly stated that his job was comparable to the Surgeon General's role in the US! He gave us about 30 minutes of his precious time to enter a dialogue with us about the emerging helathcare system in Romania. We face many of the same challenges, and have acknowleged the fact that the beginning to a great system is adequate primary care physicians. His role is to take Romania's system to the next level, he seems eager to face the challenges head on!

The last activity of the day was to tour onne of Romania's oldest public hospital, it was quite an experience. The lack of air conditioning and waiting rooms makes navigating very hard. Thing are very different in the hospital, the level of sterility is quite different and the large wards are still in place. Private rooms are virtually non-existant. MRSA and nosocomial infections are not a problem because antibiotics are rare in the first place due to cost. On the tour I saw that they have a poly-trauma ICU which encompasses 400 beds on 7 floors. There is a picture of the sign to the right.

Dinner was exiting as we ate at La Mamma's, a traditional Romanian restaurant. I had the beer (which was great), and kabobs made with chicken, filet mignon, sausage and veggies. The garlic mashed potatoes were awesome!

Sorry for the long post, but we learned so much about the system here that we are overflowing with ideas about how to fix ours! Again the level of interaction with the policy makers, administrators and governement officials was priceless!

Luv ya'll!

In Bucharest....Finally!

Hey wonderful family and friends!

I just arrived in Bucharest, Romania a few hours ago. After our flight from Paris to Romania, we took a 2 hour bus tour around the city prior to our check in. Romania is truly a beautiful place still developing economically, making it a great stop before it becomes a tourist trap.

The pictures are examples of some beautiful buildings with amazing architecture that are peppered throughout Bucharest. The hotel we are staying in is nothing but superb. It is the Rin Grand Hotel and here a link to their website. Very contemporary in nature, just right for us young business school students! Here's the link: http://www.rinhotel.ro/en_index.htm.

I am cutting this one short now as I am headed off to dinner, and am starving!

Love ya'll,

Dave

Off to Romania!

Well it is currently 11pm and I am fully packed and ready to go to Romania! Rebecca and I went mountain biking for about 2 hours today so I can sleep well on the plane. I'll be at the airport at 6am off to Houston and then off to Romania.

The postings on this blog may be a bit lenghty at times because my professors will be reading the blog as well. So you might get more than you bargained for in terms of reading. I will definitely include pictures too!

Bon voyage!