About a month ago I made a visit to the specialist that handles my diabetes care (endocrinologist). I was struck by several difference between my U.S. doctor and Austrian doctor that I thought others mind find interesting as well. I really wanted to take some photos, but I didn't have the nerve to pull out my camera (although I had it with me). So the photos here are only an example -- all creative commons licensed photos from Flickr. Click on the photos to see the Flickr page.
So, this is how it works. When I get to the doctor's office, I'm greeted by something like this:
That's a buzzer. Outside of the doctor's office. Or, more accurately, outside the apartment building in which the doctor's office happens to be located. The very same apartment building in which the doctor lives! Of the four different doctor's offices I've visited in Vienna, all of them have been located in an apartment building. But I think this may be the only doctor I've visited that lives and works in the same apartment building.
Once inside the building, I'm greeted by this:
Stairs! Yes, the building has an elevator, but you have to walk up about a dozen stairs to get to the elevator. These old buildings are not very handicap-accessible. The building where my endocrinologist is located is much nicer than the one in the photo. However, I did visit another doctor that is near my home whose office was in a building that was about this dilapidated. I didn't even make it to the doctor's office. I decided I would just find another doctor.
So now I've been buzzed into the building, made my way up the stairs to the elevator and arrived on the floor where my doctor's office is located. It's also the same floor where my doctor's home is located. I guess he doesn't care for a long commute. The office still looks pretty much like an apartment. When I walk in, the nurse greets me and leads me to the waiting room -- which looks suspiciously like a living room. The other rooms have been turned into a patient's room, the doctor's office and an evaluation room. The nurse then takes me to the evaluation room where she checks my blood sugar, blood pressure and weight, then sends me back to the waiting room.
When it's time for the doctor to see me, he calls me into his office -- not into the patient's room. He sits at his desk, I sit in a chair and he asks me a few questions, writes a few prescriptions and sends me on my way. I don't have to pay anything at the visit, but within a few days I get a big fat bill in the mail.
That is my typical visit. But the last time I had to use the bathroom and since the only two people in the office are the doctor and the nurse and both were occupied at the moment, I decided I would have to find the bathroom on my own. I had noticed two doors in the hallway that looked like they could be bathrooms, so I checked them out. I opened the first door to find a sink and washing machine. It's not so unusual to have two rooms -- one with the sink and shower or tub and one with the toilet. So I tried the next door, thinking I would find the toilet. But instead, I found something like this:
A sauna. In my doctor's office. But no toilet. After wandering around a bit more (I felt like I was snooping through someone's home), I finally found the bathroom near the front door -- slightly hidden by the coat rack.
So now if you're ever in Vienna and find yourself needing to visit the doctor, you'll have some idea of the oddities you might encounter.
