I’m no stranger to injuries. Over the course of almost thirty years, I’ve had stitches in my foot, broken my foot, sprained both ankles (multiple times), torn cartilege in one knee, had stitches in the other, sprained my thumb, had stitches through a finger, separated my shoulder, and…actually, I think that covers it.
Most recently, I sprained my ankle again (just last week). This time around, for one reason or another I paid a lot more attention to the whole experience of visiting the hospital. All in all, I won’t complain too much, but as far as user experiences go, hospitals have a ways to go.
Yes, my last name is Liem
I’m not a health care professional, but it doesn’t take an insider to figure out that there’s a protocol in place for checking a patient in. No matter at what point of your visit you are in, whether you’re checking into urgent care for the first time, or signing in for x-rays, or checking out of urgent care – every time you present your Care Card, there must be some protocol for confirming your last name, phone number, address, and family doctor.
Over the span of 2 visits to the hospital, I had to check in or check out of one unit or another a total of 4 times, and each time they confirmed all those details. I appreciate the thoroughness, but you’d also think that once I’ve signed in and am updated in the “system”, everyone from that visit on would have that same information and it would be flagged as recently verified.
This may seem trivial (and really, it probably is), but think about it this way. It probably takes approximately 30 seconds to confirm all of those details. 30 x 2 = 1 minute. If there are say 3 patients seen in an hour (which is what I estimated based on my particular visist), that’s 3 minutes of the hour. That’s 5% of an hour spent on confirming the same information! It may seem trivial, but that adds up!
Yes, I’m still here waiting
Little wonder that it can take so long to get treatment. I really don’t want to harp on the “system” too much because I do have some appreciation for all it has done for me over the years, but you can’t help but wonder sometimes when you find yourself sitting in one waiting room for about an hour, only to be moved to another waiting room for about another hour, only to have a nurse come in and say, “Oh, you’re still here waiting for your results?!”
That’s it? . . . Uh . . . Can I go home now?
The one thing that has often left me miffed is when I’m supposed to leave. It’s happened to me before, and it happened this time too (at least once out of the two visits) where I really wasn’t sure if I was ok to leave, or what else I had to do. If I hadn’t asked, I would probably still be standing there slouched over my crutches. I suspect it’s a case of the doctors and nurses being so familiar with the procedures that they expect everyone else to know when they’ve finished – but it would be nice to get a little confirmation that they’re done. Even something as small as “Alright, you’re all good to go. Do you know where to exit the room?”
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out
Ok. This is one that I really hope only happened because I appear to be pretty comfortable on my crutches, but I sure hope that most of the time you’ll be helped out and someone will pull open a door for you when the door doesn’t open automatically. I’m not a real stickler for this, and in fact, even if they had offered I probably would’ve said I’m ok opening the door on my own — but they could’ve at least asked! 
But thank you!
I said I wasn’t going to complain too much, so I won’t. All in all, I’m very thankful that we have a health care system that in the end is taking good care of me.
Commenting usually isnt my thing, but ive spent an hour on the site, so thanks for the info