I just returned from a visit to a couple of EU countries, seeing my two lovely former exchange students in Hungary and Slovakia. It was the vacation of a lifetime. However, I had a mishap in which I broke a metatarsal bone on some marble stairs while wearing slippery socks. It gave me an opportunity to experience the Slovak health system.
I was treated in an emergency room. I have to admit that as a chaplain at a US hospital, the looks of the place made me a bit nervous. It was not only very bare-bones, basic-looking, which I expected, but the equipment like gurneys looked rickety and scary. Luckily, I didn’t need one.
The treatment, though was professional and effective. The wait time was reasonable, the X-Ray tech and hospital staff kind and competent. The doctor (a woman) spoke English quite well, as most youngish, educated EU citizens do. The X-Ray showed a non-dislocated fracture of the second metatarsal bone, and I was given a temporary cast for stabilization, and a prescription for crutches (which I decided not to get because I couldn’t figure out how to manage them in the airport, which I had to navigate in a couple of days after the injury, and my pain is really minimal), and for anti-clotting injections to self-administer daily to reduce risks of thrombosis on the flight. Total cost: a little over $50 USD for the ER visit, including X-Ray and temporary cast, and about $70 USD for the injections from a local pharmacy.
In contrast, I used a cost calculator to see what a similar ER visit might cost at the hospital where I work. I used the tracker Price Point, found at this link. Bottom line is that for a simple sprain or strain, not even a fracture, the cost of the ER visit alone would have run a minimum of $643 on average. That doesn’t necessarily include the prescription for the injections. Yes, our ER is much nicer-looking. I’m not sure the outcome would have been any better, but certainly the cost would have been higher. I was paying out-of-pocket in Slovakia, having no travel health insurance. See the price results chart for my specific employing hospital below. Just another example that health care costs in the US are pretty crazy compared to other countries’ costs. Now I’m headed to my own urgent care clinic to see what comes next, hoping for a removable boot instead of a cast. I’m glad my health insurance will cover what will doubtless be a very pricey visit. I’m grateful to my former student and her family for getting me to go to the ER and transporting and looking after me after this minor injury.
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Emergency/Urgent Care Services |
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Sprains and strains |
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January 2020 - December 2020 |
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EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT |
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Principal Diagnosis |
Number of Cases (%) |
Lower Charge |
Median Charge |
Higher Charge |
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