Living in Tirana, the capital, gives us access to top quality medical care at very affordable rates. Because medical care is so inexpensive, we chose the minimum health insurance coverage required to qualify for residency. It covers catastrophic events.
BUT WHEN YOU NEED AN EMT…
When Barry overextended himself out on a walk on a scorching summer day and his legs folded under him, he was luckily right at the entrance to the American Embassy. The Embassy guard called an ambulance.
The ambulance driver wanted to take Barry to the hospital, but Barry insisted he was fine and asked to be brought home. I went downstairs to meet the ambulance then led the ambulance attendants to our apartment. They transferred Barry to the bed, took his blood pressure (80/40 – whoops!), started a hydration IV, and continued monitoring him. I slipped into the living room to get my stash of cash to pay for the service, having no idea what it would cost. The ambulance attendants stayed with Barry until his blood pressure began creeping back to normal.
As the attendants were wrapping up preparing to leave, I asked, in Albanian “Sa kuston?” (What is the cost?) The answer was “nothing.” Later I found out that ambulance service is free to anyone in an emergency, whether a citizen, resident, or visitor.
I also learned Tirana has become a center for cosmetic surgeries. During the “season” (which appeared to be Spring this year) there was a sprinkling of young women with bandaged noses appearing here and there.
I’ve also been told people come to Albania for affordable, quality dental work.
TWO TIERS OF HEALTHCARE – AND IT WORKS!
Albania has a two-tiered healthcare system:
Public Health Services, which is free and low cost to citizens and residents. Unfortunately, the Public Health Services are often underfunded, have long wait times, and outdated equipment. English speaking professionals are often not available.
The Private Health Care system is available for those who can afford to pay for care either with insurance, credit card, or cash. There are three locations in Tirana for the private American Hospitals (Spitali Amerikan). Additionally, I heard about but have not explored the Hygia Hospital, said to be the most modern hospital. It operates only as a hospital, meaning it’s not also a medical clinic.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, Sonila from ExPatsInAlbania.com got us connected with ABC Clinic. ABC has two English-speaking family doctors and two English-speaking physiotherapists. We sent our Kaiser records to the clinic so they had our medical history should we need medical attention in the future. A couple of months later both Barry and I needed their services.
In January, Barry came down with pneumonia and I injured my neck laying on the sofa all day on a Sunday, reading a book with my head on the arm of the sofa.
The ABC Clinic doctor referred Barry to the American Hospital to be seen by a pulmonologist (lung doctor), which became our entry into the territory of medical specialists. There are three American Hospitals in Tirana. The closest one to us is American Hospital 3 which is a 1,600 lek ($19.16) round trip taxi ride from our apartment.
One of these days I’ll video a Tirana taxi ride so you can see why we wouldn’t dream of driving ourselves anywhere in this town! From my perspective the traffic is continually engaged in a game of chicken!
Barry went to the American Hospital website, looked at the lineup of pulmonologists, and chose a doctor he wanted to make an appointment with. He booked the appointment online and we showed up at the appropriate time. Bejkush (bay koosh), our on-call fabulous taxi driver, let us off at the Emergency Department entrance, telling us he’d stay in the neighborhood and to call him when we were finished.
INSIDE THE GIANT HOSPITAL
The American Hospital 3 occupies two large four-story buildings. It’s a sprawling structure of hallways and U-turns that houses every medical specialty you can think of. The only way to find your doctor’s office is with the help of hospital guides, 100% women, dressed in black slacks and white shirts who lead you to where you need to go.
We arrived at the reception desk where the hospital guide introduced us to the receptionist. We told her which doctor we were there to see. We were asked to “wait here for five minutes and I will call you when it is your turn.” It turns out the phrase “five minutes” generally has the same meaning as the Spanish word “mañana” (Not now, but eventually. We just can’t say when).
When it was Barry’s turn we were escorted into the doctor’s office accompanied by another hospital employee who acted as an interpreter. It turned out this would be the only doctor I would encounter in the future who didn’t speak English, and only one of two doctors who were male. After the doctor had all his questions answered he made a list of lab work he wanted Barry to get: blood test, urine test, x-ray, and ultrasound.
The interpreter explained she would take Barry to the lab locations. When all the tests were completed, we’d wait for the results then return to the doctor. We were there for more than a few hours, but eventually we were returned to the doctor who explained the test results, wrote some prescriptions and told Barry to return in two weeks. And that’s the way it works.
SO WHAT’S THE COST
The cost for the doctor visit was 3,000 lek ($35.96). I don’t recall what the lab tests cost, but they were miniscule compared to what you’d be charged at a US hospital. Say $5.00 or $10.00 USD. The total would have probably been around one hundred dollars or so.
After a few visits to the hospital, we understood the routine;
- See the doctor.
- Get the tests done.
- Wait for the lab results (or if it would take more time to get results than we cared to wait, we could leave and wait to get a notice via WhatsApp when the results are ready, then pick them up and then see the doctor. Apparently, you don’t need an appointment. Just sit in the hall in front of the doctor’s office and wait your turn.
- Because this is a hospital full of specialists if there is an emergency requiring the expertise of the specialist you are waiting to see, you may have a very long wait!
- Return to the doctor for further instructions.
The good news is medical care is super inexpensive. For example, an MRI is about $150. A doctor visit is usually 3,000 lek ($35.96). If you return to that doctor within the following 30 days there is no additional charge.
LET’S GET PHYSIO
For me and my painful neck, the ABC Clinic doctor recommended that I book an appointment with ABC’s physiotherapist, which I did. (For some reason, Chiropractic is severely frowned upon.) I saw the physiotherapist once a week for six weeks with no improvement. I was pretty much in constant pain. I asked to have an x-ray because I suspected the pain was caused by a pinched nerve because there was no body position in which I could achieve pain relief. The x-ray didn’t provide any useful information for the ABC physio therapist.
The ABC clinic doctors knew from my Kaiser medical records of my midlevel kidney condition that could be made worse by certain pain killers like Ibuprofen so they offered a numbing gel to alleviate my neck pain but it didn’t do much good. They referred me to the American Hospital nephrologist (kidney doctor) to advise on a safe pain killer given my kidney condition. Thus began my odyssey of eventually having appointments with eight different American Hospital 3 medical specialists who ordered multiple lab tests to have a baseline of my current condition, which was really great when I arrived in Albania, all in the quest for a pain killer that was compatible with my kidneys.
Each medical specialist ordered multiple lab tests to assess my current physical condition associated with their specialty before evaluating the compatibility of a particular pain killer with my current blood pressure meds. And thus began Jennifer’s Healthcare Odyssey which I will document in my next blog post.
SPOILER ALERT: I eventually resolved my neck pain and uncovered new areas of health concerns. If you want to ride along with me as I navigate the halls of the American Hospital 3 going from specialist to specialist, I’ll soon be posting Jennifer’s Health Care Odyssey.