Saturday, July 02, 2016

July 2016 - An experience with health protocol


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.

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