Russian physicians visit ARMC, learn about healthcare and hospital systems in US

As they walked the halls of ARMC, the seven private practice physicians took pictures and videos on their cellphones of medical equipment, staff and the layout of department spaces to both document their visit and to show their colleagues in Russia once they return home.

“We have colleagues who are very curious about our experience here and when we go back we’ll be able to share what we’ve learned, including marketing strategies that will be applicable in our country and the organizational structures of different medical facilities,” said Russian delegate Alexandr Kovalev.

Gusel Bikkinina said she applied for the trip to help her raise her education level about international health care because, while she and her colleagues are familiar with the way the health care system in Russia is structured, they are less aware of health care structures in other countries. She hopes to study the health care system in America and see how they compare.

“Private medicine in Russia is in the beginning stages of development and in order for us to succeed and be efficient we have to go outside of the country and learn from the people who have been doing it for a number of years,” Olga Mikhaleva said.

During their three-day stay in Athens, the delegates attended a discussion on obesity initiatives at the College of Pharmacy at the University of Georgia, toured the university’s Regenerative Bioscience Center and other parts of campus and heard various presentations. They also visited well-known sites in Athens such as the State Botanical Gardens of Athens, Terrapin Brewery and local restaurants.

At ARMC the group visited the hospital’s in-house pharmacy and general medicine floor and had the opportunity to visit the hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization Lab, where Cardiologist Khan Pohlel explained how equipment in the lab is used and answered questions about procedures and the variety of cardiac health services the hospital is able to provide.

“The lab can handle all procedures short of heart transplants,” Pohlel said.

During another part of the tour, Mother/Baby Unit Director Mindy Meyer explained different methods that nurses and staff use to note when meal trays are dropped off and picked up and what time the patient was checked during hospital rounds.

“This helps to make sure that mothers and their baby are not disturbed more than they have to be,” Meyer said.

Meyer also answered questions about vaccines babies receive before they leave the hospital, breast feeding versus the use of formula, the types of formula the hospital uses and how often doctors recommend that mothers feed their baby.

The Emergency Department proved to be another interesting leg on the tour as delegates were given an opportunity to view a trauma room outfitted with equipment to help doctors work on injuries patients receive to both the left and right side of the body.

“The equipment improves efficiency in the trauma unit,” said ARMC Vice President of Public and Governmental Affairs Elaine Cook.

Registered Nurse and Emergency Department Clinical Coordinator Christi Ruff also was on hand to explain the department’s workflow strategy, the length of typical shifts that staff work and answered questions about the volume of people the department sees and the variety of injuries it handles.

But the myriad of questions was welcome, Cook said.

“Anytime we have a chance to have a cultural exchange it’s a blessing, because no matter what we may know about our strengths we always benefit from learning from other’s perspectives,” she said. “It was really great to have them. We’re thankful they asked us to host them while they were in Athens.”

The delegates said they noticed many differences between hospitals in Athens and those in Russia during their visit, most notably the gap in the available information technology.

Although the information technology sector in Russia is growing rapidly, delegates said there still is resistance from many in the health care sector in terms of electronic medical records and others.

“Our systems at one time were drastically different because in the United States health care was predominately private and now it’s slowly moving towards a more government controlled one. In our case it was the opposite,” Marina Ivantcova said. “In Russia there’s approximately 80 percent government-run medical facilities as opposed to 20 percent private ones, and that number is increasing. We know that we probably are going to converge somewhere in the middle and we are trying to find out where that middle is.”

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