Dear US-type-people, a query

[innocent_lex]

This might seem odd, but I want to get this right. Here in the repubic of olyparalympic-land we have our own doctors (GPs). When we need to get tested for pretty much anything beyond blood tests, we have to make an appointment with a hospital and get it done there. So if I needed an xray I'd have to get it done at a hospital. Is that the same for

Comments

[khek]

I've lived in both a small town and the suburb of a city. In small towns, they send you to the hospital, because most practices (even group practices) can't afford the specialized equipment. In some cases, the hospital itself is too small, and patients are sent to larger hospitals to be seen by more experienced doctors and technicians. (And in some cases, you wish they HAD sent you to the bigger hospital, because the East Bumfuck Hospital is more likely to read your tests wrong or figure out they can't fix you in the middle of a treatment. They also tend to lose patients more than bigger places, or have to keep them longer.)
-- population 3,000 and 12,000 in a rural area.

In the suburbs or larger cities, the medical professions are clustered in buildings with many specialties, and they offer most of the testing you need. With that said though, I think there's a push now to offer some things at only one branch. For example, the health care provider I go to has 7 branches in the greater Boston area. It used to be that you could have anything done at any branch..some things only on one day a week, but they could schedule it. Now, however, if I need to have a mammogram or a colonoscopy, I have to go to two different branches, (one in the middle of downtown Boston..grrr). Plastic surgery and dermatology patients have to come to the practice I go to. I think they're in the midst of further dividing the centers, but so far, that's just rumored. I think they're trying to save money by having localized machines and non-traveling specialists, but it's annoying.
-- population 12,000 for town, 52,000 for where the medical center branch is, and probably 1 million for the greater metro area for all the branches.

[innocent_lex]

Yeah, we also have a varying level of quality in our hospitals, and student doctors have to do rotations at both a good hospital and an, er, less good one. For example, the nearest hospital to me with a casualty department isn't one I'd like to spend any time in. I've been to others that are much better.

Thanks for that - very useful.