Korean Healthcare

I had my first experience with a Korean hospital last Friday. The four new teachers all had to go to the National Medical Center to get our health checks which are a required part of our visa. The process went quickly but they definitely don't have Patient Privacy Laws here. The exam rooms for eyes, teeth, blood pressure, height and weight are all open and near the waiting room. There was a big group of high school age girls that were also getting health checks.

Most of the staff spoke enough English to tell us what they were doing to us or what they needed us to do but we had a Korean co-worker there to translate for us just in case. In one room, a lady asked us if we had or ever had various types of diseases. Most of the questions she asked, I had never heard of so I told her no.

To pee in the cup we had to use a non-western style toilet (a/k/a a squat toilet). Not an easy thing! We then carried our samples through the busy hallways to the lab. It was so funny! After we filled our cups we took them to the lab and sat them on a table out in the open (something else that I don't think happens in America). The lady gave us stickers to put underneath our samples and then took three vials of blood. We were then off to the x-ray department to have our chest x-rayed to ensure we don't have tuberculosis.

At the top is a picture of my identification card for this particular hospital. I have no idea what the first line of numbers means. The second line is my first name written in Korean. It doesn't have my last name...very interesting. The last line is my date of birth written year first with a -6 at the end.

We should have the results by the end of the week and then we'll have to send all of our documents to immigration to be processed. After this is completed, we will finally get our alien registration cards. This card acts both as a Social Security Card and a national identification so we don't have to carry our passports with us all the time. This also leads to getting a bank account and other things we all take for granted.