We are about to take a journey through a day with
health professionals. At the end of this journey the goal is to see where
improvements can be made to ensure better patient satisfaction. Our experience
begins with a visit to a local doctor. At the doctor’s office you get a battery
of tests done because you haven’t been feeling well and needed to know just
what has been going on with you. After all of the tests were completed you are
giving a return visit for a couple of weeks to go over the test results. As you
wait the days that eventually turn into weeks, you become very anxious about
what could possibly be the results of the tests. You pray for good results and
continue to wait for your appointment day to finally arrive.
The follow up appointment day has finally arrived
and you are cautiously excited about getting answers to why you haven’t been
feeling quite yourself. You arrived at your appointment and get your vitals
taken and wait in the room for the doctor to arrive with your test results. A
knock comes at the door and the doctor comes in and tells you that all of your
tests came back negative. They could find anything wrong with you. In your
frustration you tell the doctor this cannot be correct you know how you feel
and it is not normal. The doctor tries to console you but it just makes you
more frustrated so much so that you say since you will never find an answer to
why you feel the way you do you may as well kill yourself. In your frustration
you fail to see that the mood of the room has now changed. The doctor has
called security to take you away so that you don’t do any harm to yourself. You
try to explain to the doctor that you only said you would kill yourself out of
frustration and haste but it was too late. Security was on the way to the
doctor’s office to get you.
Security arrives and it is not just one security
officer, it is six security officers. They are all there to escort you to the
emergency room. You explain to the security officers that there was a
misunderstanding and that there was no need for their services. The security
officers respond that you could either walk calmly with them or you would be
taken by force. Not wanting to be embarrassed any more you walk with security
to the emergency room. In your mind you are thinking this can’t get any worse
than your six person escort but sadly you are wrong.
Once you arrive in the emergency room you are
greeted by nurses, patient care advocates, and more security. You are told to
remove all of your clothing and given a paper pants set to wear. Your phone,
wallet, and money are all taken from you and you are placed in a room with the
bare essentials. You have no way to tell your family where you are and your
frustration continues to grow. You ask if you are on a psych hold and a nurse
tells you no. You ask why you are here and are told that it is simply to speak
to someone. In all of the confusion and the non-answers you are hearing all of
the laughter and joking of the staff and can’t help but wonder if it is about
you. However to not bring any more problems your way you remain quiet.
Four hours have passed and you realize you have to
go to the bathroom. There’s no bathroom in your room but there is one in the
hallway. So you ask the nurse to use the bathroom and she comes to get you to
take you to the bathroom, where you learn that you have to use the bathroom
with the door open. How humiliating for you. This day began so simple with just
wanting to find out what was wrong with you and now you have a stranger
watching you use the bathroom. You would cry but you will not give them the
satisfaction of thinking you feel defeated. You ask your nurse why you are
being treated this way. The nurse responds that you are on a psych hold. You
say you asked whether you were on a psych hold and you were told you were just
under observation. So you ask when you will speak to a doctor. You have to wait
for a teleconference with a psychiatrist.
It has now been ten hours since this experience
began. All you want is to get out of the hospital and go home and lay down.
Yes, you are very angry and vow to sue everyone involved with your
mistreatment. Finally the psychiatrist is available to speak to you and decides
whether you can be allowed to leave. You explain to the doctor your plight and
why you were frustrated enough to say you should kill yourself but you had no
intentions of killing yourself. The doctor decides that you are stable and
allows you to go home. You rush out of the hospital so that no one can change
their mind at the last minute. Once you arrive home you explain to your family
what happened and why you couldn’t return any of their calls or texts. You take
a shower, get into your pajamas, and get into bed ready the end this day’s
experience looking forward to the start of a fresh day.
A few take a ways from this experience: 1) Be
careful of what you say in the presence of medical professionals it can be used
against you. 2) Try your best to cooperate with the staff. 3) When dealing with
an upset patient remember patience. 4) Lastly take time to communicate fully
with a patient it will help deescalate the situation.
