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!
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!
1 comment:
Dave,
Pizza Hut, seriously? I am glad you got some beer and steak later. The 400 bed ICU sounds unreal, a 50 bed unit alone would be overwhelming. How big is the population it serves and where in the world does 400 beds worth of trauma come from? Maybe you should be careful there.
Love, Beck
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