Differences between the US and Japan – Hospital medicine

In Japan (and like most places in Asia), patients stay in hospital MUCH longer than in the US for similar condition. For example, average hospital stay for a woman with a regular vaginal delivery without complication is 6-7 days, compared with 36-48 hrs in the US! Another example: I was told that a patient with an elective lap chole (laproscopic cholecystectomy) in Japan has an average stay of 3 days. In the US, the same type of patient can go home the same day! I feel that in Japan, the hospital really baby sits patients well and will not discharge patients until they feel 100% physically. In the US, on the other hand, as long as the patients are stable and show some early sign of improvement, they are discharged right away. I’m no public health expert, but I am pretty sure the skyrocketing health care cost in the US has something to do with it; the longer the patients stay in the hospital, the more money it costs BOTH the patients AND the hospital.

There are definitely more differences than I described above. I just put up something that was very obvious to me. I shall discuss it further later.