The Health Care Interviews

This year I'm doing research as my primary activity on the ground. The experience of trying to help a student's father receive care for electrocution stuck with me, but I realized that I don't have background knowledge on how the system works in this country. Essentially, I don't even know what I don't know.

The solution is to learn, and my mechanism of choice is to interview local people. I've already spoken to drivers, hotel staff, hospital staff, and even the man we helped last year. A picture is emerging of a broken system that lacks transparency and delivers care unequally. Not a huge surprise based on my one experience. One of the most telling quotes is nearly universal from everyone I've talked to: "The number for the hospital is something easy to remember, but I just can't quite think of it right now."

While talking to Toni (my student) and his family, an amazing fact emerged. His father returned to Cambodia in 1979 right after the Khmer Rouge lost power (remember, they were still a force in the country for nearly 10 more years). At that time, he was working with an international healthcare care agency, and acted as the director of the regional hospital and governor of the state from 1979 to 1981.

My jaw dropped.

I have a standard question I ask people near the end of my interview designed to wrap up and tease out high priority issues. "If you could change one thing about health care in Cambodia, what would it be?" Some people are stumped at first, but Toni's father began rattling off a laundry list. I don't know a lot of Khmer, but he started numbering his points "First.... Second.... Third..." (that's all I could understand), and I knew I was going to get some incredible information.

After most interviews I walk away with more questions than I had before, but that's how this type of process works. I'm gathering as many details as I can from different perspectives. In the end, I should have what I didn't have before: a base of knowledge.