My experiments with Max..... Review on Max Hospital - Pitampura - Delhi

I have had several encounters with Max Hospital Gurgaon in the last 6 months or so, not necessarily as a patient, but as a family member of more than 2 others. I need to be discreet here and save the rest of the details as they may be personal in nature, however there is so much to share about my experiences, that I could not contain myself from typing that down.

I have had the honor of writing a review on a smart phone “on” that very same smart phone once. Today, I am writing this one on Max Healthcare Gurgaon, sitting right in the cafeteria of the hospital, waiting for a conference call with my office for a senior management review.

In general, I have found the doctors / physicians here to be very good. They are masters of their trade, very polite and sure footed. The charges of everything one does here may be a wee bit on the higher side, however, I have come out satisfied with the experience(and so have been those whom I accompanied).

The support staff here is interesting. They are supportive as well, however they suffer from a 15 second amnesia most of the time(If you’ve watched “50 first dates”, you know what I mean). For a person who visited a counter 5 times in a week, and twice on the same day, the same person would ask the entire history again and again. May be they are too process oriented and not just people oriented. My mother in law used to carry the test reports with her in their signature “Green” envelope, and after having a look at that envelope, the front desk / report executive would always ask her if she had ever visited Max before. I am yet to find out if those green envelopes are sold as stationary elsewhere. I find this gesture quite amusing. May be too much work and the 100s of people that visit them make everyone look alike. I would suggest to have the communal fanatics to be made to work as these front desk guys for a few months, and people of all castes, creeds etc would appear alike. Well, God made us humans, its us who drew divisions on the basis of religious beliefs etc.

There is this one very interesting front desk executive, whom we have met more than 50 times and we dread his sight. Somehow, he is omnipresent. Discussing an appointment with him is tougher than convincing my senior management on my plans. If one asks him a question, he would look into the persons face(actually look no where – “shoonya” as we say!), then look into his empty desk for 5 minutes, and wait for the question to be repeated. He would look for the answer this time, and it would not surprise me if commonsense was given a day off! Ask him for the labor room and he would point you to a lab. Ask him again and you would think it was German or Latin. Ask him for the third time and he would recommend you to ask someone else. ….and this would go on! By the time you move to another counter, to ask someone “else” he would reach there as well, and say “How may I help you, sir?”. This reminded me of Stephen Hawkins’ theory that the space is curvilinear and you would end up at the same place where you started from, if you keep moving in a straight line.

Then there is the Max Chemist – the chemist in-house. This outlet is really too good. It would have all the drugs / medicines that you can think of, but not the one you precisely need. They are kind enough to recommend another outlet nearby to try our luck. And that generally works.

Then there is their cafeteria. I am somehow fond of this place. Since everyone here has all the time in the world, this is a good place to cool off, attend business calls, write reviews, or just do nothing. This is the only place where the cooling is not frigid.

What I do not like about the place is that they have just visiting doctors, no permanent ones. This limits one’s time window for consultations and follow ups. Although the same doctor would be found at his / her personal clinic later. This is a good place for them to find their patients too. They also keep moving among various branches of Max in NCR.

They have recently started the “Sunday Doctor” concept, where doctors are available from 9 AM through 4 PM for normal consultations. Earlier, this was missing and one had to miss office to see a doctor here. What I feel uncomfortable still is the fact that none of the doctors / technicians / executives realize or understand that people do not have all the time in the world to spend at the hospital. They are generally inconsiderate in adjusting appointments. As a result a productive hour at this hospital means at least 4 unproductive hours on an average. I may be biased here, but am honest.

It’s a good pass time to keep watching the people that visit here, not the patients, but the ones that belong to my category. It may not be a good habit on my part but thats what a devil’s workshop thrives upon.

I saw a real estate agent trying to act funny with his wife in the visitors lounge yesterday, just to be given a “how many times will I regret this marriage?” look.

Another family was having a near picnic at the food counter, an otherwise common sight in malls these days.

I see some patients coming on their own, sometimes, just because there is no one to accompany them – I feel sorry for the older ones. I hope my parents have us around whenever they need such help.

Before I end my ramblings for the day, I must comment about the approach to the hospital. Driving on the wrong side of the road is a shortest route to the hospital. Its literally true in this case. The Delhi metro has dug up places nearby and the traffic is diverted at more than one points. Its fine as long as one is arriving from the M G Road, however if one approaches from the other end, the shortest way is to drive on the wrong side on the diverted road(read my comment above) OR take a 3 KM long loop, waiting at 2 traffic signals. Maybe it improves once the Metro is up and running.

.contd in comments.