How to go to the hospital in Florence, Italy

Thanks for sharing your experience and I hope you had a speedy recovery and continued to enjoy your trip. I had to seek medical attention in a small town in Bavaria and was very impressed with how quickly I was able to be seen, the quality if the care and the low cost.

We have had emergency health care in our travels too. Amazing, many times received care in Europe. The best however, , hands down, was in Luxor, Egypt in a private clinic.

Glad you were able to to go on about your travels.

I both winced and laughed at your description of your experience.

As a Canadian, I have trouble understanding why some Americans are so against a publicly funded healthcare system. Although sometimes people have complaints, these are usually brought about by governments making cuts to healthcare, and they generally apply to less serious situations.

My mother-in-law died from cancer this summer. She spent five weeks in care--first in hospital and then in hospice. She received excellent care, and we did not go bankrupt paying for all those weeks, in addition to the year of tests, treatments, etc.

Sounds much like a visit in the US to an emergency room. Nothing ever changes except for the price.

I once went to a hospital emergency room in Italy, (well, Sicily,) for a full day, and it cost me …. nothing!

I once went to a hospital emergency room in Italy, (well, Sicily,) for a full day, and it cost me …. nothing!

That is typical for what most would see, you only get charges when you move from "Emergency" to hospital care.

I assume in the case of the OP, they determined quickly that while he needed some urgent help, it was not true emergency care. A general care physician may have been an option as well.

Glad you are able to resume enjoying your trip. Terrible to lose so many days to illness, though.

Mike, thanks so much for your "trip report!" I have traveled to Italy many times - and hope that there are more times in my future! Thus, I am very glad to have some idea of what to expect in an Italian hospital, should the need arise for me to visit such an institution. Also: I love your writing style, and have enjoyed your posts for years! Thank you!

Sorry about the fire alarm, could you take the drip with you?

Phillip:

No, no that would have made sense, so they didn't do it. Instead, after noticing me wincing in pain from the blare of the alarm, they took mercy on me and moved me a few meters away from one alarm and towards another until I was equidistant between the two. I suspect the theory was that I would enjoy the experience more in stereo -- sort of like a Pink Floyd show, minus Pink Floyd -- so everyone would come out ahead.

Did I mention this went on for at least 1/2 hour? My ears are still ringing.

Apart from that, I'm feeling much better.

-- Mike Beebe

Jamauldinuu:

Thanks! I plan on posting some more of my trip now that I've stepped off Death's doorstep and into a glorious British day.

-- Mike Beebe

I will piggyback on Mike's very entertaining description of his Italian hospital experience, since mine also had some similarities.
1. Arrive in Verona, unpack and head out to the store with your husband for supplies.
2. Immediately trip on some cobble and take a hard fall. But also immediately get up as not to embarrass yourself.
3. Notice some swelling on your wrist but consider yourself tough and travel on to the store. On the way, you discover the swelling is now massive and the pain is pretty bad, even for a tough person.
4. Use your best Italian that you've been waiting to use with locals to ask where the hospital is.
5. Walk the 1.5 kilometers to the hospital with your very supportive husband while supporting your wrist and trying not to cry.
6. Find the "teaching hospital" and wait in the waiting area with the locals. Note that your husband is not allowed to enter because of Covid restrictions. (Good thing I'm feeling pretty confident with my language skills. After all this is our 7th trip to Italy.)
7. Follow the other three people when called. Seems like the right thing to do, since you didn't understand a single word from the radip fire Italian that was just spoken. Sit and wait for x-ray.
8. Now wait for cast (at least that's what I think I'm waiting for).
9. Now things get interesting. I figure out quickly that the older doctor is teaching the younger student how to apply a cast. Not the light and colorful casts that we have in the U.S. Nope, this is a heavy, white plaster cast straight out of the 80's. (The way they had my wrist configured in the cast even had my American doctors baffled)
10. Now wait in a waiting room for another 2 hours to get release papers signed. There is some good entertainment however. The best part is the singing duty aide who loves to sing Christmas songs in her best english in June.
11. Get released and wait for the horrible bill that has been lurking in the back of your mind. Bill is not mentioned, so you get to use your best Italian again to ask how much you owe. Duty aide checks... Niente, è gratis. Gotta love universal healthcare, but not an Italian cast.

I will just add from my own two weeks in an Italian hospital after a fall that the food is MUCH better than hospital food anywhere in North America. Also the personal care - clean sheets and a sponge bath every single day, which I never got in a Canadian or American hospital. I’ve broken bones in a variety of countries so have a broad base of experiences to compare 🤪.

My experiences and those of my friends and family with emergency room wait times is that I could add all the wait times of all of our incidents together at hospitals in Italy and the total would be less time than a single wait time in Canadian hospitals (for non-cardiac emergencies, that is.) Or the 6 hours my sister with Type 1 diabetes waited at a U.S. pharmacy for insurance approval to get some emergency insulin, despite being a hospital Vice President with top-level coverage.

And then there is the story of my 91-year-old uncle who was evacuated off a hiking trail by helicopter and Alpine rescue, flown directly to the hospital, given intensive testing overnight and a cardiologist consult in the morning - and paid not one thin dime. I think he spent the night in the hospital sweating about medical bankruptcy - but he was in Italy. All it cost him was a lecture about how he should not have been out on that trail at his age 😋

Not to denigrate (much) American and Canadian health care systems - this is just meant to agree with Mike and to tell others not to be afraid of needing to use emergency healthcare in Europe. Italy is not the place for medical tourism, but the care is there when you need it.

A quick warning regarding Nelly's post - in some countries (eg most notoriously Austria) you will be charged a large sum of money if you need air evacuation from mountains, and serious hikers/climbers are strongly recommended to get specific insurance policies to cover it.