A while ago I discovered that attending a hospital appointment is no straightforward issue.
The academic hospital is not as patient friendly as they think they are.
Oh, yes, the check in poles are at two heights.
But that's about it.
One has to walk quite long distances.
I hate it to have to go to the assessment department first for measuring my blood pressure (Yep,,,after walking too far, often hurrying to get at the departments in time, because even when you are in time at the first one,you have to wait... And when you think you have to wait.....yes, you understand it right now I guess... then they are in time and you will be too early for your next appointment, so you have to wait anyway.
So after measuring blood pressure, you need to go on the scales for your weight and length.
Yep, each time I get there my length will be measured and noted.Imagine how much computerspace it takes to archive length over and over again for thousands of patients!!
After this patients need to walk another great distance to the doctor... and maybe back to the assessment department to get bloodwork done.
After the accident I couldn't walk that at all, so needed a wheelchair.
The day came that no wheelchair was in the outside wheelchair tent...
After a long search my daughter found one at the parking cellar... and I sat on a bench outside... getting colder and colder, as I was just an obstacle for wind and rain.
One can't drive the car up to the entrance to enable people to go out and directly get into the huge hall... no... people need to get out either hundreds of meters from the entrance, or somewhere in the parking cellar.
You can never go alone, because there is nowhere in the cellar a disability parking lot with a wheelchair parking space beside it!!
So there ws no wheelchair in the special tent.
Yes, a tent... when planning they forgot that wheelchairs outside get wet, so they didn't put there anything nice looking there.
So the wheelchairs stay dry... and when it rains and there are no wheelchairs patients get wet, because there is no bench in the tent...
Did I say this is an academic hospital?
It happened again last week.
Then my daughter saw one of the hostesses taking the last wheelchair out of the tent and pushing it...empty... to the main entrance.
One way or another that looked odd, or my daughter had a very intuitive moment.
She asked the hostess if she needed the wheelchair for someone.
"No. I am putting it in the hall, so people can take it when they need to get outside."
Some people will understand that I plead for a simple IQ test for hosts and hostesses before they are offered the job.
Others need to know that when people get inside they already use a wheelchair if they need to leave the hospital in a wheelchair. Otherwise they'll get outside at the ER department, where cars can stop just a few meters from the entrance there.
So my daughter tried to explain why a wheelchair was needed near the tent... got it... drove me all around hospital...
Does that sound like a happy end?
Then stop reading here.
It happens over and over again that there are no wheelchairs.....
No learning curve there...
.
The academic hospital is not as patient friendly as they think they are.
Oh, yes, the check in poles are at two heights.
But that's about it.
One has to walk quite long distances.
I hate it to have to go to the assessment department first for measuring my blood pressure (Yep,,,after walking too far, often hurrying to get at the departments in time, because even when you are in time at the first one,you have to wait... And when you think you have to wait.....yes, you understand it right now I guess... then they are in time and you will be too early for your next appointment, so you have to wait anyway.
So after measuring blood pressure, you need to go on the scales for your weight and length.
Yep, each time I get there my length will be measured and noted.Imagine how much computerspace it takes to archive length over and over again for thousands of patients!!
After this patients need to walk another great distance to the doctor... and maybe back to the assessment department to get bloodwork done.
After the accident I couldn't walk that at all, so needed a wheelchair.
The day came that no wheelchair was in the outside wheelchair tent...
After a long search my daughter found one at the parking cellar... and I sat on a bench outside... getting colder and colder, as I was just an obstacle for wind and rain.
One can't drive the car up to the entrance to enable people to go out and directly get into the huge hall... no... people need to get out either hundreds of meters from the entrance, or somewhere in the parking cellar.
You can never go alone, because there is nowhere in the cellar a disability parking lot with a wheelchair parking space beside it!!
So there ws no wheelchair in the special tent.
Yes, a tent... when planning they forgot that wheelchairs outside get wet, so they didn't put there anything nice looking there.
So the wheelchairs stay dry... and when it rains and there are no wheelchairs patients get wet, because there is no bench in the tent...
Did I say this is an academic hospital?
It happened again last week.
Then my daughter saw one of the hostesses taking the last wheelchair out of the tent and pushing it...empty... to the main entrance.
One way or another that looked odd, or my daughter had a very intuitive moment.
She asked the hostess if she needed the wheelchair for someone.
"No. I am putting it in the hall, so people can take it when they need to get outside."
Some people will understand that I plead for a simple IQ test for hosts and hostesses before they are offered the job.
Others need to know that when people get inside they already use a wheelchair if they need to leave the hospital in a wheelchair. Otherwise they'll get outside at the ER department, where cars can stop just a few meters from the entrance there.
So my daughter tried to explain why a wheelchair was needed near the tent... got it... drove me all around hospital...
Does that sound like a happy end?
Then stop reading here.
It happens over and over again that there are no wheelchairs.....
No learning curve there...
.
Wow, that is just terrible! But I do understand. It's not much better here either. Even if they do have a place to unload patients at the door, the driver has to get out and go find a wheelchair for them while they leave the car sitting there in the loading zone with other cars lining up behind and sometimes getting impatient. And yes, then the opposite on the way out...the driver has to go find the car and bring it to the loading zone while the patient waits for them on a bench or in the wheelchair if they were fortunate enough to find one. If you had a procedure done in the hospital, you might actually have an aide wheeling you to the door and waiting with you, but if not, then you are on your own. Thankfully, some of our bigger hospitals have valet service, which you have to pay for. After seeing the distance to and from the parking garage (and finding a parking space), it is worth the $$ to pay for the valet service. It's not a lot, maybe $3.00 or something like that, plus a tip of course to the driver. LOL. Oh, and you must be sure to get a parking pass from your doctor to keep from having to pay for the parking space on your way out. If you didn't have an appointment but were just there to visit, too bad. You have to pay for the parking! Yeah, we've had our experiences with parking garages/doctor's offices/hospitals, etc. and needed assistance with a wheelchair. It's definitely no fun and not patient friendly! Glad your daughter was smart and persevered on your behalf!
ReplyDeleteNo valet service here. Which is a good iea.
DeleteNo parking passes at all for patients. So when I have to visit the hospital someone drops me of, and I have to call for the person to fetch me again.
We have a law that states that each department should have an advisory board of patients. There should be a law that states the same when a hospital is build or redesigned.
I was involved in the design of part of the new wing of the hospitalShould have been in the group for the entrance.