Military doctors vs Japanese doctors

[Carl]

Which do you prefer? I have had some bad experiences with military doctors (and the whole Tri-care BS) so I prefer the Japanese doctors.

When I had my wisdom teeth taken out (military doctors), they messed up bad and my jaw was infected for almost two months (they had to cut bone away from my jaw to remove the teeth. They didn't clean it very good). When I was home on leave, I couldn't even see a normal doctor to get the infection looked at since no one accepts Tri-care. I called Tri-care (more like Don't-care) and was told to drive 3 hours to Lejeune to get seen by a military doctor.

Two years ago, I had some virus that the military doctors couldn't identify (they didn't do anything other than spend 10 minutes looking up my symptoms in a book). I was on bed rest for a week, but didn't fully recover for about a month and a half. In the later part of that first hellish week, I woke up in the middle of the night puking/coughing up blood and my voice was completely gone. My wife took me to the ER only to get my ass chewed by some old crusty Navy doc. He actually yelled at me and said I was wasting his time and that I should just go to sick call in the morning. When I tried to talk to him, he just kept telling me to speak up even though I had no voice. Dickhead. No one wanted to actually find out WHY I was sick or WHAT I had. They only wanted to give me shot after shot (mostly antibiotics even though they already told me it was viral) and numbing medicine to make me feel better. My own unit accused me of faking it until when I finally went back to work and I looked like a skeleton because I hadn't eaten for a week.

I've only had a couple experiences with the Japanese doctors and the NHS, but so far I'm much happier with it than I was with the military medical services. The NHS was extremely easy to sign up for and they didn't ask for any sort of medical history. My wife is pregnant (27 weeks) and the doctors have taken outstanding care of her. The doctor visits are short, to the point, and they let us take home the recording of the ultrasound. It's also extremely affordable (even the night time emergency visits). My wife also had her wisdom teeth pulled out (only $50) and she was in almost no pain afterwords which was a surprise to me after the nightmare I went through with mine.

Back in February or April, they came to my work and gave us all an annual physical. A couple weeks later, they provided everyone a report on their health with suggestions on how to improve our health and things to look out for. I never had a thorough physical like that while in the military (they wouldn't check my cholesterol even when I asked them to) and the military sure as hell never came back with a report on my health.

I have a 1cm x 1cm lump inside my tongue right now (They're pretty sure it's a tumor. Won't know for sure until they take it out) and I've been seeing a Japanese doctor for it. The doctor is enthusiastic and started studying English to try to explain things to me so my wife doesn't have to translate. He's done research on the lump at home and even photocopied English references to give me so I understand too. They've given me an ultrasound (tastes like ass) and an MRI and I'm going back Tuesday to have it removed. The doctor has called us to schedule appointments to save us money and to keep us from having to keep taking time off work.

The longest I've ever waited to see a doctor is about 1 hour and that was when my wife went for one of the early pregnancy checkups and the place was packed (Chubu OBGYN. She had no appointment).

And there's quite a few hot Japanese nurses (especially at the dentist)!

[hankypanky]

I'd rather pay to go to a japanese doc than go on base free, hell i'd grow more gray hair waiting on the appointment. Not all base meds fault, do to lack of personnel, but the timing is much better in town, time is something i don't have much of.

[Oki alumni]

I think we're EXTREMELY fortunate here at Yokota. The on-base staff have proven to be highly proficient, most understanding, and friendly. I have the added benefit of being able to schedule my OWN appointments via TRICARE online. Even though I'm eligible for BOTH the Japanese and Base medical care, I still prefer on-base because of the language and the mis-understandings that COULD occur. The Tachikawa Regional Disaster Emergency Hospital (Japanese) is STATE of the art, and my few experiences with them have ALL been positive. They put in a stint in April of 1998, that quite literally saved my life, and I was dismissed (after MUCH grumbling by the staff) 10 days later. Shortly thereafter, I received a bill from the Base hospital for approximately $4,000 to repay them for what THEY paid the Japanese system. Not having a lot of $$$ back then, I asked for (and received) a remission of indebtedness. That's been my only negative experience with the "system"...being asked to pay for a "benefit".

In 2001, I was diagnosed with treatable cancer by the base (Yokota) hospital, and medevaced out to Tripler Army Medical Center (AKA TAMC, and OUTSTANDING!!!) in Honolulu, Hawaii, where my TOTAL expenditures came to about $1,500 for TWO months...food and lodging. Since treatment, I'm considered in remission, and yearly (or more frequent) blood tests confirm this. Overall, I'll stick to the U.S. system, but more for my comfort than any other reason.

-Oki Alumni:old:

-Oki Alumni:old:

[Odie]

My experiences with military doctors have been very limited and unfortunately not good ones. When I fell onto some stairs in Nago and put a nice big gash in my shin I had to be taken by ambulance to Lester. I could go on and on about all the painful nuances of that experience but that would just be too much. I will just give the highlights : I got to the hospital at about 4:45 P.M. didn't leave the hospital until close to 1A.M. A corpsman* sp? ripped out gauze that the medics had put on the wound making it bleed more. I wasn't offered any painkillers. They had my husband take me upstairs to get an x-ray of the shin while I left a bloody trail on the floor. I could go ON and ON. Honestly it was the worst medical services I've ever received. The only person who was kind and genuinely seemed to care was the female Japanese doctor who was working there.

Then there was the day I went because the area around my right eye was red, swollen and hot to the touch. The doctor poked around in it a bit and said, "I think it's a stye, hmm, but it is hot to the touch, umm, yeah, that's ok, go home do some hot compresses and come back if it gets worse" I can't really complain about that too much though because it did get better in a couple of days. His demeanor just sort of hinted that he really was just guessing though.

Unfortunately my experiences so far haven't been good and the first experience was so long, drawn out, full of nasty attitudes and enough pain to make me sweat that changing my mind will be difficult.

I don't have much experience with Japanese doctors, but I'm going out on a limb here and I'm going to say that in my experiences the medical services provided by private hospitals and clinics are better than the military ones, no offense meant to anyone. I'm sure there are fine doctors and nurses etc, who work for the military.

[DoctorP]

I take offense to all who choose to put down military doctors! To boot, dentists are dentists not doctors and should not be included in your rant.

[Carl]

I take offense to all who choose to put down military doctors! To boot, dentists are dentists not doctors and should not be included in your rant.

Ok, well, not ALL military doctors/dentists are bad. I meant no offense. A good friend of mine (who'll be here in Oki this month) is a dentist with the Navy and he's a damn good one too. It's just that many of the ones that have taken care of me haven't really been that great.

I never really had bad experiences with the docs when I was stationed on Foster back in 2004/2005, but I never really went to the doctor that much (maybe twice. Once for an infected eye, and once for a reaction to Raid). My bad experiences come from 29 Palms. You couldn't pay me to go back to the hospital or the dentist on base there. Dental there may be better now though (even though they never gave me a dental examination before I separated. They could never keep their appointments). I had my wisdom teeth removed there back in early 2004. The bad experiences I, and others close to me (my wife's friend's husband died because they replaced an artery near his heart with a child-sized one) have had really affected my overall view of the military health care. I know there are some good docs in the military, but there are several bad ones too. That goes for civilian doctors also, but bad civilian doctors have to worry about malpractice suits and whatnot.

[P_chan]

I don't like military dentists. Last time I was there I was told I had two cavities. Didn't understand why because I brush, floss, and use a fluoride rinse often, but I didn't think nothing of it. Until the actual dentist came in to take a look at the suspected "cavities" an said "they're not really cavities, you just have some small pits in your teeth. But we'll fill them anyways because we need the experience.". WTF? So they used my mouth as a guinea pig to get some training experience once I really didn't even have a cavities?

The time before that the dental tech said "you have 13 cavities!". Once again I thought WTF and the actual dentist came in to take a look. She said "no those aren't cavities, he just has some very small pits on his teeth from fluorosis.". Then they proceeded to give me a fluoride treatment:confused:. Guess I need to lay off the fluoride:D

[badkitty]

I can say since I have been here, I have GREAT doctors (Lester) and an AWESOME dentist (KAB). I have had some crappy docs in the past (Nellis AFB anyone?) but here, my major issues have been taken care of. It sucks that you have had horrible care but i am glad that you are getting taken care of. I wish nothing but the best for you!

[radarman141]

I have had my share of good and bad but my wife has always been worried about the level of care she and the kids receive. Fortunately my kids have always been healthy and have never needed anything more than the occasional cough syrup. My wife on the other hand went into KAB complaining of localized pain and cosiderable swelling on the left side of her neck. The "doctor" did an exam and diagnosed her as having a sinus infection. He ordered a blood test to check for infection and gave her a decongestant. The next day she was in more pain and called the clinic and they said he or his nurse would call back. She called 5 times and got no reply from any of the staff. I finally convinced her she needed to go to the emergency room at Lester. As soon as she arrived they took her back and pulled her records up on the computer. They discovered her whiet blood cell count was through the roof and actually labeled "critical" on the report. They imediately started her on antibiotics and called an ENT to examine her neck. She ended up in surgery to drain an infection that could have killed her. The ENT said if she would have been treated with antibiotics when she was seen at Kadena the surgery could have been avoided.

Here is the icing on the cake. The doctor at Kadena was notified of the lab results within minutes of the results being reverified (lab tested her blood twice to ensure they didn't screw up). The times of the tests and the time of notification was all annotated on the lab report. I can understand that maybe he was with a patient and it took 30-45 minutes to call my wife but he never notified her at all that day. Then the next day when she called 5 times to talk to him and let him know she was getting worse she was still not notified. Even after the surgery and the complaints filed with Kadena, he has still not called her to this very day. Even after it was suggested he do so by the clinic SG.

Needless to say her trust in AF doctors has been shaken to the core. I have since transfered her and the kids PCM to Lester. She is persuing the matter now through the civilian legal system. I will repost the outcome when it is resolved.

I have never used a Japanese doctor so I cannot comment on that but the level of care and proffesionalism has to be a thousand times better thean Kadena.

[cellophane]

I don't like military dentists. Last time I was there I was told I had two cavities. Didn't understand why because I brush, floss, and use a fluoride rinse often, but I didn't think nothing of it. Until the actual dentist came in to take a look at the suspected "cavities" an said "they're not really cavities, you just have some small pits in your teeth. But we'll fill them anyways because we need the experience.". WTF? So they used my mouth as a guinea pig to get some training experience once I really didn't even have a cavities?

:D

What? No Water Pic? :D

[IkoIko]

Having never used the military medical services (only heard my fiance whinge about them, though the whinging has decreased lately which might mean good things) I can only comment on Japanese ones.

I am not Japanese nor do I fluently speak Japanese so most times I find that I cannot fully express my problem/symptoms. I'm limited to simplistic terms (i.e. 'it hurts' as opposed to "its a sharp, stapping pain...) that have on occasions been misunderstood or poorly diagnosed. This would really worry me if I had a serious illness or a major injury.

I frequently cringe at the hygine practices in Japanese medical places, be that doctors, dentists or whatever. The clinic/hospital may look new and clean and the staff wonderful, but then they proceed to do a procedure/exam without gloves on or even washing their hands. Sorry, but it bothers me and its not an isolated incident. I've been told that its cultural.

Japanese doctors tend to prescribe a huge amount of medication for the most minor of ailments. This is not specifically their fault but its a cultural expectation coupled with their training and the types of drugs that are available here. More than once i've gotten a bag of 5+ drugs just to treat a minor cold. And more than once the unknown sideeffects have been worse than the illness. But the drugs are cheap at least!

But it's not all bad. I've found a hospital i'm comfortable with. The doctors speak reasonable English and are fairly open to Western ideas on medicine (expectation of privacy, patient asking questions of the doctor, popular overseas drug treatments), the nursing/admin staff are friendly and patient and my national health insurance covers 70% of the costs making it very affordable:thumbup:. I would not choose this facility were I at home, but it's the best here for me.

[SignoftheEndTimes]

Hm, guess I've hit a lucky streak with military dentists, but thinking back, that was in Tyndall. I had a pain in my molar that I had to suffer for two months (had I gone to the dentists during tech school I would have been held back. No way in hell am I going to stay in Sheppard any longer than I have to.) Putting the details of the painful tooth aside, when my appointment came up I had the nicest full bird colonel for a dentist, treated me like I was some relative (which I didn't mind, I never got to know my grandfathers since they were dead >>) and when I coughed up tons of blood, he wiped me clean with a joke. "Oh, better get rid of that evidence". I thought it was pretty funny. He made double sure that everything was good to go along with a follow up. Same thing with the whole wisdom teeth thing, except different dentist, but equally cool.

However, seeing some of these stories and hearing some from a co worker, I'm starting to think I'm better off with doctors off base than on.