I HATE Hospitals

Today, my father called to tell me that my grandfather, who had quadruple bypass surgery on Monday (he's 92), was not doing well. I decided to go down there even though he was in CCU and we couldn't really see him.

My wife and I drove down to one of the Memorial Hermann hospitals (I'll spare them by not naming the actual one) and went to the front desk. One of the very nice retired volunteers directed us to the 2nd floor. We went up to the second floor but the orderly said that he was not there but rather on the 1st floor.

We went to the area he suggested and asked a nurse who said, "No, CCU is on the <i>third</i> floor" and gave us very specific directions. We made it to that waiting room (still, we haven't seen any of our relatives yet) and a very old volunteer who could barely hear us look up and down his lists and found my grandfather on his list (last name). He said that he was on the 1st floor!!!

I go back to the front desk and asked AGAIN! They said, "We are so sorry. You just need to go back to the 2nd floor and ask the nursing station right outside the elevator." Back up again. We get the 2nd floor nursing station and they explain that he is actually in CCU that is outside surgery recovery. They give us directions to the <i>first floor</i> once again and give us very specific directions to surgery.

We finally make it to the surgery waiting room and ask the retired volunteer woman there where my grandfather might be. At this point, as you can imagine, I'm pretty damn pissed off. The woman is absolutely as rude as you can get. She says, "If he's in CCU, he isn't here. And, if he had surgery on Monday, he isn't in recovery." I explain that he was too sick to be moved from recovery and I'm trying to find my relatives who are waiting for him.

She tells me that she can't go looking all over the hospital for "some people" but maybe I should just wait there and they'll show up.

I am absolutely livid at this point. I decide to go to the main lobby and try and call my father (or someone). I find out, at that point, that my father has gone home. My grandfather can't see visitors but a couple times each day. He said that my grandfather is in surgery recovery only a few feet and around the corner from the last rude woman we spoke to on the first freaking floor.

I will admit right up front that I can't stand hospitals. I think that they are noisy and ugly and highly annoying.

Two things bug me about hospitals more than any other:

1. The one place on earth that should make you feel relaxed, comfortable and healthy is one of the least relaxing, least comfortable and un-healthy places on the planet.

Hospitals are noisy, bright, uncomfotable and incredibly hectic. I never understood doctors who would prescribe a hospital stay for exhaustion. I can't ever imagine getting any rest in that place. Everyone I've spoken to said they can't get more than a couple hours of sleep in a row without being interrupted for pills or tests or something. When people are sick, they need peace and quiet. Hospitals are about as relaxing and peaceful as an airport at Thanksgiving.

Also, am I the only one who feels sicker when they leave a hospital after visiting than when you enter? I saw guys walking buy me with their gloves still on after leaving a patient room, bio material in boxes carried by people from surgery, etc. It was nasty and I'm not at all a germaphobe.

2. There is virtually no way to change it. Hospitals own a basic monopoly. If you are a consumer, how do you boycott a hospital when you are sick? Do you just go without insurance?

Hospitals aren't beholden to their patients for money. They are beholden to insurance companies which means their main concern is making the hospital efficient rather than healing and relaxing. It is like an assembly line.

Now, I have incredibly respect for ER doctors and they seem to do a tremendous job in terms of handling patients and doing their best. But, the rest of the hospital just seems like a monolith designed to make the lives of doctors easier but not the lives of patients who need the most support.

 

Nomar: There are better hospitals around. But, they are usually private and NO insurance company would cover your visit there. They are too expensive. That's fine for some but the vast majority of people are in healthcare systems like Memorial Hermann, Methodist, Humana, etc.

 

Pole: Your example of the ER is a perfect one. I have great respect for them and I've been in emergency situations where the people there were great. But, I'm speaking more about the rest of the hospital.

DOD & DVauthrin: I understand what you are saying but I'm not really talking about the healthcare workers, particularly the nurses. I have known lots of nurses and they all seem very dedicated despite their very difficult jobs. I have NO problem with them. The people I spoke to were mostly retired volunteers. I can't blame them too much for being screwed up. The nicest and most helpful one was a nurse.

What bothers me is the way the hosptial is set up in the first place. I think it is difficult on the nurses and difficult on the patients. The only people it is set up for are doctors and administrators.

Think about it this way:

If we could have any enviroment we wanted that would be condusive to healing, what do we think that would be? Would it be rooms jammed together with a view of a freeway or brick wall? Would it be crammed corridors with people running all over the place? Would it be one with noisy people clamoring past your door at all hours of the night? Would it include you being awakened every two hours?

My point is that we have allowed the healthcare system to streamline the hospital process into something that is set up for doctors so their rounds are easier and for administrators to show their boards that the hospital is operating at peak efficency. In neither of those situations are the patients made a priority.

Maternity is a perfect example. Instead of being in a loving, caring, warm environment, it's cold, bright and noisy. Instead of a woman using gravity to aid in childbirth, her legs are up in the air. Both of those are for the doctor's benefit, not the mother's. Nevermind how it effects the child. Oh, and instead of keeping a child near the mom after birth, he/she is swept off to a ward with bright lights and bunch of other screaming babies.

I just get tired of the fact that our healthcare system seems to operate outside of our way of doing normal business. They don't have to compete in the same way most businesses do so the patients have no say in how they are run. If patients were really all that important, hospitals would not be what they are. They would be very different.

And it bugs me even more that hospitals do everything within their power to ignore the alternatives. In California, midwives are being harassed by government agencies because they are occupying an increasingly large percentage of the childbirth "market." Instead of exploring the possibilities of alternative healthcare practices, they force government regulation on the market so they can swallow it up. They have even removed the word "alternative" from healthcare and replaced it with "ancillary" or "additional" healthcare.

Insurance companies and doctors combine to make one of the most anti-healthy duos ever. Insurance companies refuse options to patients on doctor recommendations even if the patient disagrees. Insurance providers rake in millions and then sqabble over the type of surgery or treatment a very ill patient should get. People actually have to hire patient advocates when they are sick (assuming they can afford it) to argue with doctors and insurance providers over healtchare treatments. What kind of unbelievable crap is that?

Oh, and nurses are treated horribly as well. They spend the majority of time with patients, yet they are overworked and underpaid and usually become scapegoats when there are problems.

The whole thing just pisses me off and it has for a long time. We need radical changes in a system that has become bloated and untrustworthy. Unfortunately, sick people are often in no position to complain which is why it has gotten so bad.