Dear Editor,
An agreement for provision of clinical and medical services was reached and signed between the management of SZV Social and Health Insurance of St. Maarten and director Jose Chavez, MD of the International Healthcare Services at Clinica de Occidente in Cali, Colombia.
Something must have gotten lost in translation because the “safe and high-quality health services” for international patients are nowhere to be seen, and not even their domestic patients are given quality care.
Clinica Occidente is understaffed, their personnel is overworked with 12 hour shifts. As a result, patients are not tended to in a timely manner, do not get prescribed physical therapy on a regular basis, and dangerous mistakes are made in administering medication. Lack of communication between doctors and nursing staff, lack of prescribed medication and hygienic supplies can and has led to complications and setbacks in the recovery of patients. Often, the patient’s family member ends up purchasing these items at a pharmacy. In the hospitalization section, 2 nurses aides have to tend to patients in at least 23 rooms. The registered nurse who’s in charge of the department does not report to the attending physician when a patient gets bedsores, hemorrhoids, vomiting, and diarrhea caused by medication or infections. The physician only hears about these issues when it’s mentioned by the patient’s family member/travel companion. When this is pointed out to the nurse in charge, it’s not always appreciated and has resulted in nasty attitudes.
Changes in treatment, scheduling of procedures, and moving of patients to other sections of the hospital are not always communicated to the family member/companion and are the cause of much anxiety.
The cleanliness of patients and the hospital in general leaves a lot to be desired, especially since the restrooms are not cleaned on a regular basis. Many patients in Cali have told me their own horror stories. All of the above concerns are not hearsay, they are what I experienced as a travel companion to a family member. My complaints were delivered in person to the office in Cali and by phone and email to the office in St. Maarten.
When our concerns got to the point where we knew it had become a matter of life and death, we tried to transfer to a hospital that offered better care. We confirmed that all further medical/transfer costs would be at our expense. All our efforts to do so were blocked by Jose Chavez, director of the International Healthcare Services. Even after my family member passed away Jose Chavez tried to make us believe that human remains can only be shipped on a cargo plane via Miami. We knew better and succeeded in making our own arrangements so our beloved family member could be brought home with us on the same commercial flight that we arrived on.
We don’t know the reasons why St. Maarten patients are being sent to a hospital with a 3.2 ranking, why patients are kept there against their will, and why human remains are only flown out by cargo plane – via Miami. We do know that The International Healthcare Services at Clinica de Occidente in Cali, Colombia, under the leadership of their director Jose Chavez, is earning a windfall at the expense of St. Maarten’s patients.
Rita Halley
