Costa Rica Public Hospitals

By Ivo Henfling

If you have residency in Costa Rica you are obliged to be registered at the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social  or C.C.S.S.  though this government mannaged health care system has long been broke. To see any doctors, you will need to start standing in line at 4:00 am to get attended and most of the time they’ll give you an appointment 6 months later. The system works though for those who do not have private insurance like I.N.S. or any other insurance company, you just need to be a bit patient and bring a book.


No matter where you bought a property in Costa Rica and decided to live, the time will come that you will need medical attention.
What I hear from retired people and expats coming from other parts of the world, is that the Costa Rican public hospital system and the doctors attention to sick patients is a lot better than it is in many parts of the world. I really don’t know because the two times that I was in a public hospital was to pick up my wife after giving birth to our kids, but that was 25 and 27 years ago.

If you have decided to live outside the Greater Metropolitan area, you are too far away from private hospitals in case of an emergency, so the Hospitals of “the caja” as we call the public hospitals, can be your lifesaving solution.

 

Ambulance services

Most ambulance services in Costa Rica are given by the Red Cross but there are several affiliate ambulance services throughout the country, you can read up on that on a separate blog.

 

Costa Rica public hospitals

Hospital Carlos Luis Valverde Vega           San Ramon, 400 north of the Municipal market
Hospital Centro Nacional Rehabilitación      La Uruca – San Jose, behind the Mexico hospital
Hospital Ciudad Neilly                       2Km from the entrance of Ciudad Neilly toward Paso Canoas
Hospital Golfito                             Golfito, 400 north of Catholic Church
Hospital Guapiles                            Guapiles, 100 West of Banco Popular
Women’s hospital Carit                       Plaza Viquez – San Jose, across from Musoc bus station
Hospital de Osa                              Ciudad Cortés, 500 north of Ojo de Agua school
Hospital San Carlos                          Ciudad Quesada, 2 km north of the Cathedral
Hospital San Vito                            San Vito de Coto Brus, Barrio Tres Ríos
Hospital Upala                               Upala, 100 South of Upala highschool
Hospital Enrique Baltodano Briceño           Liberia, next to the Red Cross
Hospital Fernando Escalante Padilla          Pérez Zeledón, East side of the Municipal Stadium
Hospital La Anexión                          Nicoya, across from Pali supermarket
Hospital Los Chiles                          300 South from the Command post
Hospital Max Terán                           Quepos, 200 south of La Managua
Hospital Valls                               On the road from the airport to Dominical
Hospital Maximiliano Peralta Jimenez         Cartago, 300 south of Central Park (the ruins)
Hospital Mexico                        La Uruca – San Jose, Juan Pablo bridge on highway San Jose – Alajuela
Hospital Monseñor Sanabria                   Puntarenas, 400 east from cabinas San Isidro, El Roble
National Geriatric hospital Blanco Cervantes San José, 150 west of the Red Cross
National Children hospital                   San José, Paseo Colon next to San Juan de Dios hospital
National Psychiatric hospital                Pavas – San Jose, 1.5 km west of the US embassy
Psychiatric hospital Roberto Chacon          Tres Ríos, 4 km north of the Municipality of La Union
Hospital Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia       San José, 100 west of former customs, Barrio Aranjuez
Hospital San Francisco de Asis               Grecia, 400 west of the bus terminal
Hospital San Juan de Dios                    San José, Paseo Colon next to Children hospital
Hospital San Rafael                          Alajuela, 100 South from ICE
Hospital San Vicente de Paul                 Heredia, 600 south and 50 east from the fire station

 

Ebais clinics

If you don’t have anything serious and you need simple medical attention or you have monthly prescriptions to fill, Ebais is a solution to that.
Ebais is a local health clinic that is part of the CCSS and created to release some pressure off the hospitals.
The Ebais give medical attention, nurse services, shots, gynecology, pediatric and internal medicine.
There are Ebais everywhere, just Escazu offers 5 Ebais, so when you rent or purchase a home for sale in any city of town in Costa Rica, make sure you check first where your Ebais is located and of course with your local Costa Rica real estate contact.