Many people have at one time or another uttered these words: “I hate hospitals!” It’s understandable, with long wait times, doctor’s probing and prodding, the scent of cleansers that try to mask the odor of sickness, and the sense of mortality lingering around every corner. As depressing as American hospitals can be there are things that visitors should not take for granted.
Availability: According to health statistics comparing countries by the number of hospital beds per 1,000 patients. The United States is tied in 81st place with Samoa and Andorra. Trying to keep things on a possitive note, think of it this way, we could be ranked with Nepal India that has 0.2 beds for every 1,000 patients. Also most cities have hospitals at their center. Traveling to receive emergency care does not have to take days or weeks in the United States.
Cleanliness: Some hospitals get higher grades in this area than others but honestly in comparison to the many hospitals around the world Americans have it pretty good. A missionary detailed that in traveling to a South American country the village’s only clinic was run out of the doctor’s house where chickens and pigs greeted visitors (from the inside) and no one made a move to clean up the inevitable messes.
Reasonable Wait Times: Every other American has an Emergency room story detailing how long the wait was and how miserable it felt sitting around with some form of emergency longing to be taken care of. Even if the wait was 3 hours long it would still be far better than that in other countries where residents can wait weeks to be seen by even one physician. The Healthcare debate puts much emphasis on the negative aspects of our system but when it gets right down to it those in the United States have access to decent medical care. It is something to be thankful for and not to be taken for granted.