International Traveler’s Health Clinic

Had a great experience at the Cleveland Clinic’s travel clinic before going to Africa for a couple of weeks.
It was very easy to make an appointment there and only required a 40 dollar deposit which was applied to my end bill.
I was very impressed at the knowledge and organization of our Doctor, Nancy Ivonovsek (sp?). She was not only very helpful and had all the right resources but was extremely interactive and friendly. I fear sometimes that bedside manner is becoming a lost art in the medical world but this was not that case in my experience at the travel clinic!
One of the drawbacks of the travel clinic is that they don’t take any health insurance. However, they were kind enough on the phone to educate me on this and tell me which shots I could get free from my primary care physician for instead of them.
Also, their billing system appears a bit out of date, as we paid in full before leaving, however were still sent a bill since it was taking weeks for our payment to actually show up on our account. Still sorting that out a bit but I don’t think it’ll be an issue.
Overall my experience was top notch and I could see easily why the Clinic is a world class facility. One particular note that blew me away was that initially the doctor had forgotten one of hte prescriptions to give us that we asked for but was not necessary for all travelers (Diamox — altitude medecine). It accidentally slipped all of our minds as the appointment went on. Our appointment was on a Friday and I meant to call them the following week to inquire about it but was dreading going through the red tape of telling them that the doctor had already approved it, etc. To my surprise, the following Monday Dr. Ivanosek herself called my cell phone and apologized for forgetting to write that prescription. Since I was out of town they went to the trouble of mailing it to my apartment so I still had the option to go to whatever pharamcy and I wanted and it was ready when I got back. Very impressive!