August 26, 2008
Tuesday
El Milagro: I arrive today a few minutes after four and wait 35 minutes before Carrie the Tech comes out and asks, "Are you ready?". This is not the thing to say to someone who has waited 35 minutes. She also reports that my chair has been ready since 1 pm! I complain to Carrie that because of the locked door, I wasn't able to come in and check, and that is the down side of locking us out of the treatment room.
So, I have been thinking about what I, as an assertive patient, can do to be part of the solution... coming up with one thing I can do. During the time I was waiting Jay the Boss, Susanne the Administrator, Marilyn the Social Worker, and Joseph the Tech all went by from the treatment room to the administrative section. The squeaky wheel gets the grease... I could easily ask each of the staff as they go by to check and see if my chair is ready yet.
Later Celeste the Nurse comes up and opens up a discussion with me, having overheard my complaints to Carrie. Celeste says they are supposed to check whenever they have a chair ready to see if the person is in the waiting room, but they get very busy with the work that is in front of them. I replied that that was exactly my point... that they are so busy that it is very easy to forget to check the waiting room... and some techs do better than others on checking and being client-centered than others. One of the options that Celeste came up with is that I should knock on the door rather than wait. I think that when I see people do that the folks who open the door seem quite put out that patients are knocking rather than waiting. So, anyway, Celeste said she would try to do better at checking for missing patients and I told her I would do better at squeaking at staff that are walking by in the waiting room.
Notes: In at 76.5 and out at 74.3 kgs.
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.
No comments:
Post a Comment