My Time at the Doctor's Office

           During the morning of Monday, June the 3rd, I noticed that I had a spider bite on both my right elbow and below my right knee. On Wednesday, I noticed that, while the elbow bite was slowly healing, the right knee bite was still quite red, and had a small black dot in the middle. Worried that this might be a tick or some exotic illness, I went to a local clinic to get it checked out. Though my time there was short, it was very interesting to see how similar a clinic in Peru and a clinic in America are, as well as how different some of the aesthetics are.

         When Dr. Brown, Mrs. Brown, and I arrived at the Clinica San Felipe, we went to the emergency entrance (for convenience) and talked to the secretary. After showing her my insurance card and passport, she let us wait for a few minutes before taking me to see the doctor. In the doctor's office, the nurses took my pulse and heart pressure, and the doctor came in and examined on my leg and elbow bites. I was impressed at how quick the whole procedure was conducted, as well as how clean and professional the room, doctor, and nurses were. It was very much like an high end American hospital emergency room.

         After the doctor notified us that the bite was not necrotizing, nor was it harmful other than an irritation, I paid the secretary 137.89 soles, or fifty-three dollars, for the doctor's services. This is much cheaper than a lot of other hospitals' costs, and my overseas insurance card allows me to reimburse the money I paid for the services and the medicine, which amounted to an overall total of 241.89 soles, or ninety-three dollars.

Overall I was very impressed with the quality and efficiency of the clinic, as well as the affordability of their services. While comparing American hospitals to Peruvians hospitals is like comparing apples to oranges, I can say that this was definitely one of the better hospital visits I ever had.