wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Doctor who called -- all it takes is one bad experience inside a hospital or even doctor's office for the consumer to associate every incompetent act or tricky pharma marketing with his doc or nurse. The nurse who takes off for 2 hours while mom goes into labor, leaving only the curiously arrogant, useless interns behind -- the unclean bathroom -- the lack of pertinent questions about other meds/supplements -- contempt for so called alternative treatments -- a scared patient with any of these experiences (sound familiar?) will NOT be comforted by a doctor's lack of eye contact, or know-it-all sneer. Unfortunately the bad apples ruin it for all those excellent docs out there. And Thank GOD for the nurses.

-- Columbia Presby
-- St. Lukes Roosevelt
-- Methodist
-- Overlook

I totally agreed with Rebecca from her comments see #20 except if you do get to see a physician it is only momentarily so they can charge you for the "visit". My father had MRSA and we were notified months afterward. With all due respect to Sarah's comments, should be a patient some day in a hospital and see what transpires. It is a nightmare even if you can communicate in English.

Marco, when it comes to saving lives they *should* bend over backwards. Sure, immigrants to the US should learn English (if they can; it's extremely difficult for some adults), but if they haven't yet, it shouldn't cost them their lives in an emergency.

When my 13-year-old daughter was rushed from a swim meet to an Orange County hospital with a suspected broken neck, the ER care was so erratic that I wrote a letter full of tips to the head of the hospital with my suggestions, copying the director of nursing, the director of medicine, and others, whose names I found on the hospital Web site. The hospital head called me personally a few days after I mailed the letter and eventually invited me to a meeting of his regular senior administrators to let me know how my suggestions had been handled. Among other changes, the doctor who was too busy divvying up the staff's Chinese food delivery to check on the results of my daughter's CAT scan (long story) was eventually terminated--I had not been the only one to complain about his cavalier attitude. And valet parking was instituted--I was not able to accompany my daughter into triage because she was taken in the ambulance and I had to park our car. Moral of the story: Complain effectively and you may make a difference to patients who follow.

This conversation is total fear mongering of hospitals, especially the bit about not coming to the hospital in July. Please don't be afraid to come to the hospital if you are sick! Brand new residents have supervision in the form of their attending doctors, it's not total anarchy. I am a nurse and I love it, and I entered the profession to help people, not hurt them. And I can say the same of each one of my colleagues. We are there to take care of you when you need us!

As the patient advocate for my elderly father, hospitalized at UNC in NC, I made myself very unpopular with some of his doctors as a persistent pest. However, despite this, I also received much praise and encouragement from many hospital staff.

My wife is a resident, and I've heard lots of stories about people falling through the cracks (not getting pain medication for 8 hrs because the order was written when the nurses were changing shifts).
Although being thrust into such a complex system as a patient is so intimidating, remember that its OK not to surrender common sense and double check (ask 'when should I expect this, at what point should I be worried'), don't be afraid to double check with the transporter that you're being taken to the right department for the test you're supposed to get.

re: your caller who talked about family getting in the way of care. when my non-english speaking grandmother was at maimonides hospital last summer we had a family stay with her at all times because she was scared that she wouldn't understand what was going on, and because in indian families you don't leave an elderly family member alone. but we consistently got the feeling that the hospital staff thought we were getting in the way of the care. when in fact we were just trying to make sense of what was going on for her, and then translating her fears back to the staff. we were made to feel like we were just a big, crazy, overprotective family.

I just wanted to add that I was in Maimonides hospital last month and went through ER- I was in ER for over 20 hours- without a seat for my husband to sit on, who chose to stay there with me. We waited that long in order to wait for a bed to be admitted. I had about 10 different doctors (mostly residents) who were there helping me figuring out my diagnosis. I felt I was in good hands- but, it was chaotic... I received a letter from an administrator explaining the reason I couldn't get a bed to be admitted was because of building expansion. Overall, I found the staff to be professional and to do their job (I was a bit concerned if Residents could do it all and they did--) they figured out a very difficult diagnosis and did it quickly. They all did the right thing. There was almost over attention, where every little thing that was going on caused a Resident to come over and give me a test about it- some unnecessary- but, yes, necessary for their job. Once I was admitted, I hated my ward, as I was with some older patients who were literally kept alive by machines and I needed to be in a ward that gave me some more hope and younger patients... it was too depressing for me. But, they allowed me to be released as quickly as they could.

11--Marco, THANK YOU!!! I wish you were a policy maker, if you're not.

I am a native English speaker who was hospitalized for MRSA twice in 2007. I was left in a hallway for the majority of one day because there was no room for me in the ER. Another time I was left in the ER overnight because there was no room for me. I had a devil of a time getting a straight answer from anyone on anything. My "nurse" button in my room was broken on both visits. The loud never-ceasing banter of the employees made sleep impossible.

I would suggest that patients keep a pad and pencil near their beds so that when the random doctor visits, one won't forget all the questions due to grogginess.

Interpreters work to bridge the language gap orally. Translators do it in writing.

Thanks!
Becky Holt

I have had excellent experience with the Patients' Representative department at various hospitals, and this is good. However, the reason the reps are needed is that hospitals so often mistreat patients, so that one has to complain to the PR to get minimal care. In some cases, the problem is systemic but in other cases, staff (especially young residents) are personally vindictive. Unfortunately, the residents are in charge of one's case, and sometimes their poor medical judgment and attitude dominates even when the attending physicians are good.

I'm not quite sure of what the purpose of this segment is. Is this a study of Maimonides hospital?

Having spent much time at the bedside and advocating for family and friends in hospitals, my best hospital advice is -- stay out! Go to the hospital only as a last resort. Do everything you can to improve and maintain your health using simple, natural means that we all know about. Try alterative medicine first. Resort to the hospital only if your doctor thinks it's absolutely necessary.

My wife, a Costa Rican-born psychiatrist, did her residency at Maimonides from 1999-2002 and was ultimately chief resident there. She was so struck by the multi-cultural clinical practice (e.g. Spanish-speaking female treating Orthodox Jews, Chinese, etc.), she did her "Grand Rounds" on the topic of multi-cultural psychiatry, focusing on how the different religious beliefs of psychiatric patients need to be taken into account by the treating psychiatrist. The Psychiatry Department there was an exceedingly welcoming and supportive environment. My wife went on to specialize in forensic psychiatry at Bellevue and now practices at a hospital in New Jersery.

My mother, Sonia Bowe-Gutman, works as a Spanish INTERPRETER in hospitals in the Twin Cities, MN, which now have a large Mexican population. She would be upset with me if I didn't take this opportunity to chastise Brian and his guest for using the wrong term - TRANSLATOR - for this job. Translating is for text, interpreting is oral.

July is a bad time to go to a hospital because that is when all the interns and residents switch out.

I've never read HIPA because as a blind person I've never been given it in a format I can access. AS is basically required by law. I've never been given *any* written medical information in a format I can access. Having someone stand there and read out loud does nothing for me, I certainly can't take in that way. If nothing is planned for ahead of time, there is nothing to be done and *no* hospital, doctor, etc. that I am familiar with is doing that planning, but even for things that don't have to be read in the moment, I flat out get refused to be given even the electronic text that is fine for me.

I'm an immigrant who learned to speak English.It still amazes me that people can live in this country for 5, 10 even 20 years and never learn English, expecting everyone around them to adapt to their shortcomings. In my experience most hospitals bend over backwards to accommodate these people.

My favorite portrayal of hospital life: "House of God" by Samuel Shem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_God)

Vince Edwards as the title character

Sam Jaffe played Dr. Zorba

Sam jaffee

Sam Jaffee

Vince Edwards as Dr. Casey

Sam Jaffe

I am a multi ethnic man, a former group home supervisor here in NYC, and an anti racism facilatator with the Unitarian Universalist association, a psychoterapist and a hospital chaplain. I have children of my own who are even more diverse than i am. In terms of this issue, please let children be adopted! Please allow each and every child we can place in a loving home have one! Please stop the racial nonsense! Yes culturally we are diverse, yes we eat foods that are different. But the fundemental issue for a child is to be cared for and loved! One body, one Love

Yes, the handwashing has been a known issue for a long, long time--tens of thousands killed of MRSA year after year because personnel and staff at medical facilities refused to wash their hands between patients.

Making handwashing easy, by having stations outside each room, is a BIG help--but it came too late to save my brother.

Several years ago I was shocked to hear a friend explain that her UN agency's most dramatic success -- and dramatic it was -- was convincing people in an uneducated area in a third-world Asian country to wash their hands after relieving themselves!

Maybe I'm just more skeptical in me old age, but I was less shocked a few months ago when I heard that NYork's hospitals have reduced hospital borne infections during operations by more than 50% -- after the city's hospital handwashing campaign.