El Cochinito
Jul 7, 11, 10:45 am
The Mexican Institute for Social Security Services for State Workers (ISSSTE) is a federal agency that is responsible for administering the country's health care and social security programs for governmental workers. The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) similarly covers workers in the private sector and, in some cases, ex-patriate residents who pay into the program to buy health insurance. Between the two systems they provide health care coverage for over half of the population. Both ISSSTE and IMSS run clinics and hospitals throughout Mexico. In addition to these clinics/hospitals there are private medical providers throughout Mexico that accept Mexican health insurance or cash.
My mother-in-law is a retired teacher from Mexico City hence her healthcare is provided through the ISSSTE system.
Last week she passed out while visiting relatives in Guadalajara. She was rushed to one of the ISSSTE hospitals there and admitted. My wife caught a flight from California to Guadalajara the next day to be with her mom and her sisters. Unfortunately her mom had suffered a severe stroke and never regained conciousness before passing away five days later. Those five days while she was in the ISSSTE hospital opened our family's eyes to the horror of government healthcare as administered in Mexico.
The quality of care was absolutely atrocious. My mother-in-law, who should have been in intensive care, was in an unmonitored bed with two other patients in the room. The nursing staff had little interest in providing care or comfort to any of the patients. Even if somebody is dying you would think that they would want to make them as comfortable as possible.
-- Nursing staff refused to change the patients' diapers or clean the patients. My wife and her sisters had to find a store that sold "Depends" and attend to their mom's toiletry. In the bed next to mom was an elderly patient of maybe 90 years of age; her 70 year old son had to take care of his mom's toiletry needs.
-- My wife and her sisters had to beg the nurses to feed their mom. Every time they asked they were told, "We'll get to it". After 16 hours somebody finally showed up to do a nasogastric intubation (tube feeding via the nose). The nurse doing the intubation screwed that up because the tube was too big (she said "it's the only size we have") and ended up causing a bloody mess.
-- Sterile water was apparently not available for IVs as my wife was told that if they wanted to give her mom an IV then she would have to go to the pharmacy down the street and buy some sterile water. Or just use the water from the tap - her choice.
-- The nurses were not qualified to start an IV but that didn't stop them from trying. Over and over, leaving painful looking bruises all over mom's hand and wrist. Fortunately mom remained unconscious and hopefully didn't feel this.
-- Nurses didn't wear gloves, even when attempting to start IVs. My wife asked one nurse about this and she simply said that she was careful to avoid blood. The girls had to insist that the medical staff wash their hands before touching their mom.
-- Prescriptions were scribbled by doctors on scraps of paper (not Rx pads, scraps of paper) and the daughters were told if they wanted their mom to have medicine to go find a pharmacy, pick up the prescriptions, and bring them back to the hospital. To administer tablet medication the nurses told the girls to crush the pills in a non-sterile mortar then add the powder to the IV. And the girls had to keep track of the dosage and administration schedule; the nurses told them that it wasn't the nurses' responsibility.
-- To take the patients temperature, the nurses had a few old-style manual rectal fever thermometers. A nurse took my mother-in-law's temperature with one of these, placing it in her armpit (not unusual) then told my wife to hold it there while she went off to do something else. A half hour later she returns to look at the temperature, which was 101.5 In degrees Fahrenheit. Trivia: Mexico uses the Celsius temperature scale and thermometers should be calibrated in degrees Centigrade. Well apparently the hospital only had these old rectal Fahrenheit thermometers. My wife said the nurse was trying to calculate the equivalent temperature in Centigrade but the nurse couldn't get the formula right. Finally my wife just told her that yes, her mom definitely has a fever (98.5F / 37C is normal).
-- A CT scan was done, confirming the stroke (it was very bad - half her brain was affected). However it took three days to get the results because there wasn't anybody on duty that could interpret the results.
-- Apparently there are very few, if any, physicians working on the weekend - at least that's what my wife and her sisters were told when they asked for a doctor to examine their mom as it appeared she was getting worse.
-- The nurses refused to change the sheets and gowns of the patients. Many patients suffered bedsores, including my mother-in-law.
-- Medical waste was dumped in open containers which remained unemptied for days.
-- Only one visitor permitted per patient at a time. Occasionally two depending what guard was on duty. When their mom died the doctor who pronounced her dead specifically denied my wife's request to allow all five sisters together in the room with their mom. Told her they would have to take turns as those were the rules. (No, a bribe didn't work - they tried that too)
-- If you didn't die of what ailed you in this hospital, then surely some kind of an infection would kill you. Thank goodness La Cochinita has all her immunizations up to date, particularly hepatitis as I'm sure it was running rampant in there.
Let me make things clear: Mexico has some first rate medical facilities and providers but unless you are prepared to pay for those services (which are less expensive than in the USA but are still not cheap) or have the proper insurance, then you are not accessing those providers. And in an emergency/accident situation you just might still end up at a government run facility if that's the only provider available in the area.
This is why I carry medical and emergency evacuation (air ambulance) insurance when I visit Mexico.
My mother-in-law is a retired teacher from Mexico City hence her healthcare is provided through the ISSSTE system.
Last week she passed out while visiting relatives in Guadalajara. She was rushed to one of the ISSSTE hospitals there and admitted. My wife caught a flight from California to Guadalajara the next day to be with her mom and her sisters. Unfortunately her mom had suffered a severe stroke and never regained conciousness before passing away five days later. Those five days while she was in the ISSSTE hospital opened our family's eyes to the horror of government healthcare as administered in Mexico.
The quality of care was absolutely atrocious. My mother-in-law, who should have been in intensive care, was in an unmonitored bed with two other patients in the room. The nursing staff had little interest in providing care or comfort to any of the patients. Even if somebody is dying you would think that they would want to make them as comfortable as possible.
-- Nursing staff refused to change the patients' diapers or clean the patients. My wife and her sisters had to find a store that sold "Depends" and attend to their mom's toiletry. In the bed next to mom was an elderly patient of maybe 90 years of age; her 70 year old son had to take care of his mom's toiletry needs.
-- My wife and her sisters had to beg the nurses to feed their mom. Every time they asked they were told, "We'll get to it". After 16 hours somebody finally showed up to do a nasogastric intubation (tube feeding via the nose). The nurse doing the intubation screwed that up because the tube was too big (she said "it's the only size we have") and ended up causing a bloody mess.
-- Sterile water was apparently not available for IVs as my wife was told that if they wanted to give her mom an IV then she would have to go to the pharmacy down the street and buy some sterile water. Or just use the water from the tap - her choice.
-- The nurses were not qualified to start an IV but that didn't stop them from trying. Over and over, leaving painful looking bruises all over mom's hand and wrist. Fortunately mom remained unconscious and hopefully didn't feel this.
-- Nurses didn't wear gloves, even when attempting to start IVs. My wife asked one nurse about this and she simply said that she was careful to avoid blood. The girls had to insist that the medical staff wash their hands before touching their mom.
-- Prescriptions were scribbled by doctors on scraps of paper (not Rx pads, scraps of paper) and the daughters were told if they wanted their mom to have medicine to go find a pharmacy, pick up the prescriptions, and bring them back to the hospital. To administer tablet medication the nurses told the girls to crush the pills in a non-sterile mortar then add the powder to the IV. And the girls had to keep track of the dosage and administration schedule; the nurses told them that it wasn't the nurses' responsibility.
-- To take the patients temperature, the nurses had a few old-style manual rectal fever thermometers. A nurse took my mother-in-law's temperature with one of these, placing it in her armpit (not unusual) then told my wife to hold it there while she went off to do something else. A half hour later she returns to look at the temperature, which was 101.5 In degrees Fahrenheit. Trivia: Mexico uses the Celsius temperature scale and thermometers should be calibrated in degrees Centigrade. Well apparently the hospital only had these old rectal Fahrenheit thermometers. My wife said the nurse was trying to calculate the equivalent temperature in Centigrade but the nurse couldn't get the formula right. Finally my wife just told her that yes, her mom definitely has a fever (98.5F / 37C is normal).
-- A CT scan was done, confirming the stroke (it was very bad - half her brain was affected). However it took three days to get the results because there wasn't anybody on duty that could interpret the results.
-- Apparently there are very few, if any, physicians working on the weekend - at least that's what my wife and her sisters were told when they asked for a doctor to examine their mom as it appeared she was getting worse.
-- The nurses refused to change the sheets and gowns of the patients. Many patients suffered bedsores, including my mother-in-law.
-- Medical waste was dumped in open containers which remained unemptied for days.
-- Only one visitor permitted per patient at a time. Occasionally two depending what guard was on duty. When their mom died the doctor who pronounced her dead specifically denied my wife's request to allow all five sisters together in the room with their mom. Told her they would have to take turns as those were the rules. (No, a bribe didn't work - they tried that too)
-- If you didn't die of what ailed you in this hospital, then surely some kind of an infection would kill you. Thank goodness La Cochinita has all her immunizations up to date, particularly hepatitis as I'm sure it was running rampant in there.
Let me make things clear: Mexico has some first rate medical facilities and providers but unless you are prepared to pay for those services (which are less expensive than in the USA but are still not cheap) or have the proper insurance, then you are not accessing those providers. And in an emergency/accident situation you just might still end up at a government run facility if that's the only provider available in the area.
This is why I carry medical and emergency evacuation (air ambulance) insurance when I visit Mexico.