Health Care - China Style (part 2)

As stated in a recent post, my father has developed the beginnings of Chronic Renal Failure. It led to a mild heart attack on Thursday and a trip to Beijing to the International Hospital.

He returned home and we found a specialized Kidney Hospital here in Shijiazhuang.

He emailed them his test results while talking online to them. After getting the results, they demanded he come in immediately. He was instantly admitted.

The hospital takes a holistic approach to medicine. There are three medical tourists (two Americans, one Greek) there now. Because of my knowledge of my city and my ability to speak and understand Chinese, he gets an added privilege the others don't (he can leave the hospital without escort so long as I go there first).

His room is the size of a studio apartment, complete with private bath facilities, wide screen plasma screen, kitchenette and living room furniture.

Patients are allowed to leave at will, provided they are escorted (since most don't know the city).

The battery of tests are amazingly simple and done quickly.

The attitude is one of keeping patients' spirits up as they struggle through diagnosis and treatment. The hotel plans events around town, shopping trips and a vareity of other "quality of life" things to coincide with the treatment.

The bed is a regular hospital bed with a normal mattress, so comfort is not a problem. All towelries are provided and the atmosphere is one of big windows, trees and starbucks style paint and decorations.

All staff speaks English (or as best of English as they can), but translators are available.

Those with kidney problems I recommend looking into being a medical tourist.

On a lighter note, one of the Americans, a 52 year old man from Boston, asked me if I knew where he could find a girl since he was lonely and that is very common here. I snickered and told him I had some phone numbers. Problem is, it's a hospital, not a hotel, but I told him ways around that problem too.

The diagnosis is looking good, but there is too much liquid around my father's kidneys right now. It needs to drain first.

have insurance, so I may look into it.