A.C. Camargo

Even in South America, connections and networking mean everything in healthcare. The sister of my Portuguese professor is a speech pathologist and PhD student at A.C. Camargo, the Cancer Hospital in São Paulo, and pretty much, Brazil. On Monday, Anete took Carol and I with her to visit the hospital. I had a blast and realized that I really enjoy being in places where people seek healing. (I think that might also be why I like churches as well.) You can definitely tell that I have just been through architecture school because I was asking questions like “How many additions have been made to the original structure?”, “How are the additions connected to each other?”, “How many patient rooms are dedicated to one nursing station?”, and “How are the patient rooms designed?”. The original “house like” hospital is still used for research purposes, but the majority of the patients are treated in two additions that are bridge together. The hospital is also adding a new 8 story laboratory building that is currently under construction. It is the first building in South America that I have seen using a crane for construction. Usually I have just seen the traditional brick and concrete only. Overall, my favorite features were the interior doors and use of exterior windows on the newest addition. In the U.S. we have to use doors according to fire codes to separate areas. Where there might be a heavy magnetized, automatic closing fire rated door in the U.S., here there are all glass automatic doors. You never really have to guess what is in the next hallway because you can see right into it. The family rooms and the elevator lobbies are designed to share an exterior wall so there is a floor to ceiling glass wall in each elevator lobby and in each family area. It is rather nice to be in those spaces. The cafeteria had a wall of windows that looked to a nice garden area and was also a very nice space to be in. The strangest thing in this hospital had to be the “chapel” which was a strange rock formation that held a Virgin Mary and a kneeling statue. Overall it was great to experience what is considered the best cancer hospital in Brazil, which is actually sister hospital to M.D. Anderson.
That was probably way too much talk about the building, but that is what I really see when I go to a hospital. I am hoping to see Anete in Houston one day. She has a dream of visiting M.D. Anderson with interests in Head and Neck oncology. It has been fun getting to know the extended family of some of our friends here in Itu.

For pictures, please go to:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063390&l=07691&id=54602315