The Most Important Patient in Honduras: You

International Living Postcards--your daily escape

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006
Roatan, Honduras

If you were to rank the countries offering top-notch health facilities, Honduras probably wouldn't be at the top of your list. But you might change your mind when I tell you about two of the best medical centers in Central America…both located in Honduras.

In Tegucigalpa the largest and newest medical facility is the Honduras Medical Center, opened three years ago. It's an international-quality hospital with 74 in-patient beds, 31 ambulatory-service beds, five operating rooms, and full diagnostic services including an all-digital radiology department with MRI and a high-speed CT scan. The campus has a medical office complex of 123 suites for physician offices, and an advanced trauma center.

The center is a joint venture between The Family Hospital Group of Companies of Boston, Massachusetts, and Grupo Atlantida of Honduras to provide comprehensive, world-class medical care to the people of this country. Grupo Atlantida is a diversified financial services organization that includes the largest bank in Honduras, and an insurance company. As such, they offer an affordable financial plan for health care. The co-payment for hospitalization is about $55, ambulance co-payment is around $3, and most others are 20%. The monthly premiums for this plan can be as low as $10. They also accept other insurance company plans, including international one.

The second-largest city in Honduras, San Pedro Sula, is home to CEMESA, another excellent facility. Smaller than Honduras Medical Center, CEMESA boasts the latest in medical technology and a choice of English-speaking doctors. I was a patient in this facility, so I'll pass on my experience as a testimonial.

I made an appointment for a physical, and my day started with an internal medicine doctor whose English rivaled mine. He took a family history, examined me from head to toe, asked about my current health and any concerns I had, then led me through a series of tests: full blood work, urinalysis, thyroid analysis, chest x-ray, bone density scan, ultrasound, and digital mammogram. This took most of the morning. There was some concern following one of the tests, so he referred me to a GYN specialist, who I saw in the afternoon. The specialist went through the family history details and full examination, and repeated the ultrasound.

For those of you who think this may be too much information, here's the point of all this detail: My bill for the entire day, including all tests and doctors' consultations, came to $304. It broke down like this:

Internal medicine doctors: $66 (including three doctors who consulted with me on my test results). GYN doctor: $43 (including consultation and tests/results). All other tests, scans, labwork, etc: $195.

For more than 20 years while living in Colorado, I enjoyed Kaiser Permanente medical insurance, which cost me more in monthly payments than this entire bill for very similar care. In Honduras, I called for the appointment and was seen within two days. I needed only the first appointment to be pre-booked, and I didn't wait for hours to be seen anywhere. I was treated as if I was the most important patient they'd ever had in the clinic.

A far cry from my typical experience back in Colorado.

Janine Goben
For International Living in Honduras

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P.S. A couple of months ago, a colleague went to see a bone specialist here for a rotator cuff injury. The specialist charged her $126 (included two shots of cortisone), plus $79 per session for the physical therapy afterward.