Some years ago, our family had had a fair amount of interaction with the medical community. However, I’ll spare you the details!
However, as a business systems specialist I’ve been impressed with the many changes for the better I’ve seen at various medical facilities.
It’s encouraging to see online and posted checklists, and bar-coding systems!
Such systems help ensure that medical facilities are well able to provide the QUALITY care and medicines to the correct person.
At the office level, where written instructions and policies are given to anxious patients, there’s a real need of improvement. That would be especially important for home care, or preparation for medical procedures!
Asking for clarification about a facility’s confusing printed instructions, are often met with comments like:
- “Oh, you really don’t need to do that one, because we will take care of that during your procedure”… or…
- “That’s a good question, I really don’t know!”
- “Not sure about that, but let me talk to the doctor,
and I’ll call you tomorrow” - Or, my favorite: “Really? The Instructions say THAT?”
And these are from medical professionals! This is when a patient becomes anxious about more serious issues.