In the Zurich area, Schulthess Klinik is known for being THE best sports injury clinic. It is known…read moreas a private clinic, though recently they have changed their clinic to also accept general health insurance.
I was in a snowboarding accident and broke my elbow - which had difficult fractures. I went to two hospitals before I came here, because I didn't know any better about the specialists and where was the best place to go for broken bones. This is the place that everyone and their dog raves about, but I only found out about this place from friends upon my visit to the second hospital. This place is highly booked, so finding the best surgeon or physio therapist for availability could be difficult if you don't know the ins and outs of here.
I see good reason for the raves this place gets - they know what they are doing, everyone praises them highly, and they have specialists, not generalists, looking at your issues. That means there is actually an elbow specialist here. Wow. And any health specialist can tell you elbow injuries can be very complicated as the joint is circular and has multiple ranges of movement, unlike a knee which moves front and back.
Schulthess not only has skilled specialist surgeons with great reputations, but also great physiotherapists. If you break something, you must make sure you not only have the best surgeon (in case you need to be operated) but the best physiotherapists to help you heal. Here at Schulthess you have both, and this is not the case for everywhere else. They also have a very holistic view - they looked at my case and opted not to operate on me to see how my healing goes. If it doesn't go well then they will operate. They could've opted to operate on me immediately to make money but they didn't. The physiotherapists have great notes and I continue to see different types of treatments/approaches administered to my physio sessions. They also continually measure my flexibility to monitor progress, so they make me feel that they have a good program on improving a patient's recovery. Additionally, they have an amazing department to make casts, which is a new removable cast that is not made out of plaster but a combination of plaster and other materials. This made my time spent in a cast much more pleasant! The other hospitals I went to could not do this cast for me, nor did they position my arm correctly in a cast or the type of injury I had. It was Schulthess that fixed this problem. Thank you Schulthess!!!
The reason why I went to a third hospital was because the first two hospitals had very different views on whether I should be operated or not.
The first hospital I went to made me feel like they saw Swiss Franc signs and wanted to cash in by operating on me immediately. This could be attributed to the students recommending to operating on me to learn as a part of their internship/work study as I had a complex injury. They swore if I didn't have this operation I may not be able to move my arm again. Additionally, they had two young people putting on this very cheap quality cast. I didn't realize at this time I have private insurance, so hence the treatment of being a pleb patient. As the thought of not being able to flex my arm terrified me, I went for a second opinion.
The second hospital I went to was a private clinic as I realized I have private insurance. I saw what I thought was an elbow specialist but in reality he isn't. The private clinic gave me very good service and a good recommendation, so I have no problem with this. The one downside was this place sent me back to the first hospital for a cast refitting for some strange reason. The first hospital gave me a higher quality plaster cast this time around since they finally realized I had private insurance. They even sent surgeons to speak to me to talk me into getting surgery, but I declined it; because the second hospital was against it as they felt a holistic treatment was a better road to recovery, and I believed it. However, since a few people tipped me off that the best elbow surgeon was at Schulthess, I decided to switch to Schulthess. No regrets so far.
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A little FYI on insurance coverage:
Many people have injuries from accidents, so you must understand in Switzerland when you go to the doctor they immediate ask if it's an accident or medical related, because people are separately insured for accident and medical - this means they could be different providers! All companies are required to insure their employees at a minimum level of general accident health insurance, though you can upgrade for several francs or more to semi-private accident insurance.
