Health and Wellness...

One thing I was concerned/curious about before moving here was the health care available, or not available. We have now been to the dr for several things, mostly small nuisance items - never ending coughs, with the exception of the flesh eating bacteria that D seemed to have last fall! (ok, it wasnt that but it was certainly bad!). There is a clinic very close, about 5 min away that has many american trained drs, all the staff speaks english and the facility is ok - its mainly a dr office - though you could go for some urgent care, too. Its open 7 days a week which is good. A few weeks ago I took D in for a cough that had been lingering for a couple of weeks and just sounded awful. I made the appt, they made with a dr I had not seen yet, so I went to check the website to see his credentials.
Here they are:

MD, University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, Philadelphia (U.S.)
BS, Yale University, New Haven (U.S.)
Residency: Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia; du Pont Hospital for Children, Wilmington (U.S.)
Fellowship, Nemours Center for Children's Health Media and KidsHealth. org., Wilmington (U.S.)
Medical Director, Christiana Pediatric Hospitalists, Christiana Hospital, Wilmington (U.S.)
Urgent Care Physician, Emergency Department, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia (U.S.) 2002-03
Fellow, American Academy of Pediatrics
U.S. Board Certified in Pediatrics

hmmmm....I realize you can't tell everything by credentials, but he is certainly well schooled and trained, so if he paid attention while he was educated, we should be good to go! He was fine when we met him, and of course it wasnt a dire issue and...as usual, he did what I would have done had I been the dr and gave the antibiotic I would have suggested. So all in all, was a good visit.

We also have been to the dentist here...a bit more cryptic to find one to try....very few american dentists here, only a couple that follow ADA practices. I dont know that was an absolute requirement, but I did want to know what I was getting. I ended up finding a great clinic, very close to our house that was originally just an Ortho that comes from Hong Kong every month...I had emailed him as I was having some drama with a tooth and he responded right away and advised he would also have a collegue coming to Shanghai for general dentistry in Jan. The kids and I saw him this month and it was quite fine. The odd part was he did the whole exam and cleaning, vs the assistant doing the cleaning. I guess maybe that isnt a profession here, but not sure? the equipment was new, modern and seemed fine. He was from Chicago and studied at northwestern. Seemed ok, enough in fact to have a crown replaced.

So, for day to day things, I think we are set. I still hear horror stories of if you have any major issues, but try not to dwell on that - we know where closest emergency rooms are and our service center in the neighborhood has people that speak english and chinese, so I think if we needed to get somewhere and explain something in an emergency, we could do that. I hope we don't have to try it out, however!