CIMA (Centro Internacional de Medicina), San Jose, in the suburb of Escazu, offers high quality medical services in a state-of-the-art facility.
Walking into the main building, it certainly did not look like any hospital lobby I've encountered in Canada. Off to the right was a nice open cafe with real linen tablecloths on the tables. We were early for my appointment, so we had breakfast. They didn't skimp on the fruit plate I ordered!
Unfortunately, the lady I was going to meet who would match me up with a doctor was unable to meet with me, due to no fault of her own. No problem - we were sent to the Public Relations office and the Co-ordinator had an appointment for me in no time. She cheerfully squeezed this unexpected snag into her already busy schedule.
She even went so far as to walk us over to the building where the doctors' offices are and even walked us another block to show us where Aerocasillas was located - another stop on our day's itinerary. We had two hours to wait before my appointment so we took a taxi to the Art Depot, where I bought some more acrylics and canvases. Also had time for bocas in a coffee and wine bar.
The doctor assigned to me was amazing. He spoke perfect English, which is imperative for us right now in a medical setting. He spent an hour and a half with both of us, explaining my condition in great detail, how he planned to treat it immediately and what tests he was planning for the future. I now feel as if I have completed Med Student School 101.
So - we had an hour and a half with a superb physician, an examination, meds - final cost: 45,000 colones or $90 CAD!!!!
Wait! There's more! I have instructions to call him back on Sunday (!) on his cell phone number and let him know how I'm doing. No doctor in Canada has ever spent this much time with me during an appointment - it was always more like "here's your prescription refill script, see you in 3 months, goodbye". We didn't feel rushed at this appointment. Furthermore, now my husband is involved too - I think that's important.
We highly recommend CIMA.
2 comments:
I'm so glad, you too had a good experience at CIMA (not considering that one has a medical problem in the first place!). We were equally amazed with the superb medical care received there. Your cell phone remarks really made me smile, because I was also able to dial the cardiac surgeon's (!) cell phone at any time day or night when Barry was in hospital. Absolutely utterly unthinkable for US physicians!!
Claudia, the one similar thing every one of our Canadian friends and family asked us when we told them we were moving to Costa Rica was: "But what about the medical care?".
So you, Barry, Lance and myself are here to say - the quality is as least as good, and the cost is much more reasonable.
So glad to hear about your positive experience with CIMA.
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