Today I read with great interest a story in The Seattle Times,(browser address: http://tinyurl.com/hipsurgerymexico) about an area man who had hip surgery in Mexico — an experience that made him enthusiastic about the quality of Mexican health care, and a bitter taste in his mouth about the realities of the system at home, where he says  middle men have made major medical inaccessible and unaffordable.

The patient, Jim Krois, didn’t qualify for government help, and couldn’t afford on his own to see a specialist about his hip. His family doctor supplied painkillers, but they “just kept me from screaming. It was worse and worse and I actually got really depressed. I thought I was going to end up in a wheelchair.”

“I looked at Singapore and India and Costa Rica,” he says.  Mexico was $12,000 far less than the $52,000 to $80,000 Krois says he had been quoted for surgery in the United States and closer than the other countries.

But it was the quote from spokesperson Matt Fenwick from the American Hospital Association that gave me pause.  In the article the spokesman posits that “US domestic hospitals can deal more quickly with any complications from surgery.”   We would warmly welcome the opportunity to demonstrate to Mr. Fenwick that Angeles hospitals are full-service, state-of-the-art facilities with the latest medical technology.  From neonatal ICU to nuclear medicine, we provide the most sophisticated medical care available anywhere in the world.

Mr. Fenwick realistically noted that US hospitals are more convenient for family and friends of the patient, and don’t require adjustment to a foreign culture.  We at Angeles Health International have taken steps to make medical travel as simple and hassle free as possible.   Hospitals such as Hospital Angeles Tijuana and Guadalajara are just a domestic flight away.  International patients are provided with a patient experience management team that includes a case manager, a travel concierge, and a clinical information specialists (either a doctor or a nurse), and round trip transport from San Diego International airport to our gated medical complex.

Since 2006 we have treated nearly 7,000 international patients.  We welcome feedback and questions, to ensure we continue to provide health care that exceeds your expectations!