Mar 07, 2016 03:15 PM
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For my family members' various medical needs, I have consulted various specialists of the hospital's OPD ranging from pediatricians to physicians. All the doctors are highly competent, empathetic, they listen to the patient before asking questions and communicate very well about their diagnosis and treatment strategy. Minimal medication philosophy is the trend nowadays in the metros and the doctors of this hospital thankfully follow the same.
However, the lustre of the OPD experience dulls out once you get admitted and come to the receiving end of their in-patient care. It must be said that the doctors continue their attempts to give their best whether you are admitted in the ward or the MICU. However, the same cannot be said about the nursing staff and the housekeeping staff. The nurses, even the ones in the ICU, seemed forever so busy with documentation work and filing that attending to patients in distress was sometimes left to the cleaning staff. Knowledgeable patients cannot escape the impression that the hospital must be pursuing some quality certification/accreditation and that the nurses are under immense pressure to focus on record-keeping and filing.
There was a sign outside the MICU that shows no cellphones are allowed. However, the duty staff kept on using their own phones in front of the patients. Maybe the duty doctors can lead by example by not using their phones except for emergency calls and messages.
In the MICU, there was severe shortage of spit trays, jars for urination, bed pans - I am using layman terms because I don't know their correct names. For the 15-bed MICU, it is a no-brainer that 15 sets can be kept clean and ready always, maybe under the beds for quick use when a patient badly wants to spit or discharge. Another 15 sets can be kept spare that would give the housekeeping staff enough time to recycle the soiled ones.
The relatives who wait out on patients admitted to the MICU have to use the common washrooms on the ground, first, and second floors. These washrooms do not have toilet paper or tissues provided! Big inconvenience and a hygiene issue too!
In the ward, the room given to us was clean and well-equipped. The washroom however felt sub-premium compared with the main portion as far as sanitary equipment quality, fittings and their general maintenance and upkeep were concerned. Also, the housekeeping personnel seemed more keen to count the number of bystanders in the rooms than ensuring prompt supply of drinking water, TV remote, tissue rolls, and other patient needs.
The canteen provides clean and healthy food according to patients' needs and as directed by the in-house dietitians. However, the options were sometimes limited. This could be the reason patients are allowed to consume outside foods, even the ones admitted in the MICU. Though comforting for patients who can manage to have home-made food brought in, there is the risk of contamination and infections to all the patients in the facility. Since my relative benefited from the hospital's lenience in this matter, I should be the last one to complain. Yet my sincere suggestion is to weigh the patient benefits vs the risks in such matters while setting a policy.
Unfortunately for us, the insurance company's approval of the final bill came in late in the evening at 8 pm. For the next hour and half, I could only watch with sympathy the only person at the reception struggling to handle OPD billing, ambulance billing, incoming telephone calls, and finally insurance plus final billing for in-patients all by himself. Having an additional person in the billing section in the night shifts may set back the hospital by, say, Rs. 20k a month. But the enhancement of the customer experience, for patients who have to check out at odd hours, would be priceless for the organization in the long run.
