JAPANESE HOSPITAL
CARE
On December 26th last year in Tokyo
I was packed to go to Maui the next day.
Instead, I tripped, fell, and broke my hip. Fortunately, the woman on duty at
the desk that night was in charge of that department. I crawled to the phone.
she came up and, together with a man. got me into a wheelchair and called the
ambulance. The negative part of this event was that it took the ambulance three
hours to find a hospital that could accept me. The problem is that though there
are approximately one thousand hospitals of this size (one hundred beds) in Tokyo Tokyo
Once I was accepted, it was necessary to provide a deposit
of the equivalent of $4,000 in yen in cash. In this emergency I did not have
that amount in cash with me. The woman from the front desk had accompanied me
on that three hour ride, and it was now midnight. She loaned me her phone, and
I called a long-term Japanese friend who came to the hospital at midnight and
paid the deposit. Not only that, he
slept all night on a plastic sofa in a cold lobby to check on me the next
morning.
I was taken for an X-ray shortly later and, to be sure, the
hip was broken. I was told a patient often must wait a month for a surgery
date.
Fortunately, the surgeon
performed the hip replacement two days later, on the 28th. My
rehabilitation began the next day, walking with a walker which enables a
patient to walk without bending over, as with an American walker. The next two
weeks in Honda Hospital were an eye-opener.
First, the surgery was perfect, though I have often heard
of hip replacements in the US
What
I will always remember especially is the exceptional nursing care, something I
know from experience I would not have expected in an American hospital. Nurses
were so caring that I marveled. I was so impressed that I tried to remember the
names of as many nurses as possible. One or two of them behaved somewhat
comically to induce patients to laugh or at least to feel better. One of them
sang as she came to our beds in the morning, and we never had to wait more than
two minutes if we rang for them, even during the night. If that were not
enough, one of the nurses brought me a gift two nights before I was discharged.
I suppose the fact that I speak Japanese and that I was only the second foreign
patient this hospital has had helped. Friends both Japanese and American came
to visit daily during my two weeks there, bringing books, newspapers and
delicacies.
I
must say also that the hospital diet was far more healthful than the typical
American diet, even in hospitals. I was intrigued by the dishes brought three
times a day. The hospital nutritionist came to see me three times to see if I
was satisfied with the fare. Other than being unable to eat rice three times a
day I was more than satisfied. The
hospital nutritionist came to visit as
well, and went beyond the call of duty, buying some special yogurt for me.
The office staff was also more than accommodating, bringing
a
phone to my bed when
concerned friends and family called from the U.S.
Fortunately I had purchased
insurance to cover such an exigency, and all this superior care was provided at
about one-tenth what it would have cost in an American hospital.
Why is it that we in the U.S.
When I returned home to the U.S.
My reply was always that Japan
with excellent care far
beyond what I could have expected in the U.S.
Joyce
Lebra
www.joycechapmanlebra.com
Joyce, I was so sorry to hear about you breaking your hip. I'm glad to hear the positive notes of what must have, otherwise, been a very trying experience.
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