Please Don't Barf: A Trip to the Korea Medical Institute

Usually, when I get an email that is in English it is serious:

Dear All,  

  

KIST has arranged a medical examination for the all employees.

You can choose any date during 1st of Sep. - 30th of Nov. unless the center isn't available.

You can check the medical center's availability when you book online. 
Korea has universal health care. Since the health care debate (I use that term loosely) still simmers in the U.S., I thought I would share with you my experiences here.

I was very sadden when the community meetings to debate health care in the U.S. degraded into death panel scares. I had been very optimistic since doctors, hospitals, health insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and patient's rights lobbyists were all ready to join the dialogue. How that was turned into 'Obama-care sucks' amazes me. It may well be true that Obama-care sucks. Sadly, the debate never really happened. To me, forcing everyone to buy health care insurance doesn't seem quite right, but since that was a provision to prevent insurance companies from denying coverage, I didn't really mind it. Perhaps there is a better way. That was sort of the purpose of the town hall meetings. Sadly, all I remember from that was how there were going to be death panels.

I have been to the clinic a couple of times in Korea. Both times I told the doctor what was bothering me. He examined me and put me on antibiotics for a week. I was in the Doctor's office less than 10 minutes. The pharmacy charged me 3,000 won ($3) for the antibiotics.

Preventive medicine is very important here which is what today's post is really about. This morning was my medical examination, and what an examination it was. To begin I was told not to eat or drink anything after 9 p.m. the night before. Of course that meant that I was dying of thirst. I arrived at the clinic around 8 a.m. I am given a form to fill out. My favorite question was:

Have any of your family died of the following:
a: Stroke b:Cancer c:Heart disease d:Kidney failure e:other

Unless all of your family is still alive, I'm guessing 'e' is chosen the most. The other questions were if you smoke or drink and how often.

Once that was turned in, I was sent to the locker room where I changed into hospital robes. The clinic is sort of in the shape of a 'T' where the base is the registration and the top is the waiting room. The waiting room is pretty large with several doors to small examination rooms adjoining it. Welcome to the assembly line.

My first examine was an EKG. Then I was ushered into the next room for a glaucoma test. In the next room I had an inhalation test. This was followed by my height measurement, weight, blood pressure, eye examine, balance test, and a hearing test. Whoa, and we were just getting started. They take some blood and then had a sonogram of my abdomen, thyroid and prostrate. In the next room I met with a doctor. She asked me if I had any discomforts or questions. I was with her for less than 5 minutes. I bypass the pap smear room and the mammogram room. Then it was a scan of some sort starting at my head and ending at my pelvis. The next room was a chest x-ray.

The last room was the worst. I was given a large pixy stick and asked to swallow that quickly with a glass of water. This was followed by something like pepto-bismo. I nearly gagged. "Please don't barf," said the technician. I was instructed to stand against a platform. "Hold on, please." The platform tilted me back until I was laying down. "Please turn right. More. Please don't barf." All this time a machine was taking pictures of my GI tract. "Please turn left. More. Please don't barf."

After that ordeal I was told to urinate in a cup, transfer it to a test tube, get dressed and go home. I was there roughly two hours. That was the most thorough examine I have ever had. They do not mess around. I would estimate that there were roughly 50 people going through this process at once. I do not know how cost effective these procedures are, but there were no additional costs to me.

A list of the standard test. I guess I didn't want the fecal exam or the dental exam.

A list of additional tests. To convert to dollars divide by 1,000.

It was a very interesting experience. I cannot say whether this system is better than the U.S. or not. I will say that the Korean system is way more efficient. Of that there is no doubt.