Last Post Thread

[BethAnne]

I'm headbanging in a different manner today

 

[Redbaron]

I'm headbanging in a different manner today

Ouch, that sounds more painful than what Mendalla’s doing.

 

[BethAnne]

Ouch, that sounds more painful than what Mendalla’s doing.

it is

 

[Mendalla]

Ugh. None of that kind of headbanging here yet, but it's only noon hour. There's still lots of time for someone to piss me off. Have an ape hug.

 

[BethAnne]

Saying goodbye to my Inner Circle (creative mentorship) friends. It's tough, but time.

 

[Northwind]

Good morning. Strolling into last

 

[KayTheCurler]

I am head banging too. I cleared the decks in the kitchen in preparation for using it to prepare food,. I got out the necessary utensils etc.. Then I discovered that my partner cad eaten the cottage cheese that I need! Oh well - I guess he'll have to go buy some.

My other head bang concerned a medical appointment. My specialist ordered a CT for me last year. I heard nothing so phoned his office. Yep - it had been ordered and it was now sent again. To be done in March for an April appointment. Phoned the imaging people this morning and was told I was booked for a date in May. Too late. My appointment is the 9thof April. I now wonder what poor person had their CT cancelled to fit me in!

Mutter, mutter..

I will now make some lunch. Ham and pea soup with challah.

 

[BethAnne]

I am head banging too. I cleared the decks in the kitchen in preparation for using it to prepare food,. I got out the necessary utensils etc.. Then I discovered that my partner cad eaten the cottage cheese that I need! Oh well - I guess he'll have to go buy some.

My other head bang concerned a medical appointment. My specialist ordered a CT for me last year. I heard nothing so phoned his office. Yep - it had been ordered and it was now sent again. To be done in March for an April appointment. Phoned the imaging people this morning and was told I was booked for a date in May. Too late. My appointment is the 9thof April. I now wonder what poor person had their CT cancelled to fit me in!

Mutter, mutter..

I will now make some lunch. Ham and pea soup with challah.

big hugs

 

[Northwind]

Ugh Kay. Some booking people don't get it. You may not have bumped someone else out. They have slots for emergent and urgent appointments. They likely put you in one of those. I hope the CT goes well.

 

[Mendalla]

Well, given one of my team at work once had to go out of town at 2am for an elective scan (I think it was an MRI, not a CT), that's not too terribly bad. But I concur with what Northwind says. Booking people, esp. at larger institutions like hospitals, are often a pain to deal with.

 

[Northwind]

MRI machines are generally run 24 hours a day. The booking people at our local hospital have generally been great when I've talked to them. The booking people at the cancer centre in the city have been challenging. They seem to forget who they serve, and that having a cavalier attitude isn't appropriate when people's lives are at stake.

 

[BethAnne]

I noticed in the far-off past, that most of the ones I had to deal with seemed to think I lived across from the centre and didn't like to allow for my hour travel time to get in.

 

[Mendalla]

They seem to forget who they serve, and that having a cavalier attitude isn't appropriate when people's lives are at stake.

See, I know we are supposed to be all about public healthcare and all, but I work for a private, for-profit healthcare company (in a sector not covered by the Canada Health Act) and our client service staff (note the emphasis) would be out on their asses if we got complaints like this. Seems like the public health sector hasn't got the memo that patients are their clients/customers and should be treated as such (customer knows best and all that). Just because the government pays the bills doesn't change that (and most of our patients are paid for by government programs as well, so it is really no excuse).

 

[Northwind]

The appointment booking people at the cancer centre stand out because of their behaviour. Pretty much everyone else is amazing. I filed a complaint through the Patient Care Quality office. I was not the only one apparently. Heck, the doctor asked me if I'd had problems because people were talking to him about it. He wrote a letter as well. I have faith the PCQ office has addressed this. I've filed other complaints to the PCQ office for Island Health and for the cancer centre. They're usually good at addressing the issue and fixing it. I've also submitted complements to the PCQ office.

 

[Mendalla]

There's good and there's bad in every sector. I grouse about healthcare IT all the time, esp. at the government level, but that doesn't mean they are all bad, just that there's enough bad to create problems. And, of course, being in healthcare IT myself, I get a chance to try to make things better, at least at my employer, and I do try to do so. The problem in healthcare is that the bad can really wreak havoc on people's lives given the importance of some healthcare.

And with that profound statement, I shall return to being LAST!!

 

[Northwind]

The problem in healthcare is that the bad can really wreak havoc on people's lives given the importance of some healthcare

This is true. Still, when there are mechanisms in place to tune things up, then hopefully there's more good than bad.

Last.

 

[Mendalla]

This is true. Still, when there are mechanisms in place to tune things up, then hopefully there's more good than bad.

Last.

Yep, effective quality management like the PCQ office you described goes a long away towards managing issues. I actually helped our quality team put out an improved incident and complaint tracking system this past year.

 

[BethAnne]

Very very tearful goodbye to the mentorship gals

For another example of poor customer service - that's non-medical...when I did my Masters degree through Southern Connecticut State U, I had to sign a waiver that I would NEVER set foot on campus as I was an online-only student. I had to phone the registrar's office once (that was a nightmare in and of itself as there were only 4 phones on the entire campus that could call out of state so I had to stay on the line for hours if I needed help because they literally couldn't phone me back) and was informed that I had to deal with the issue in person. Reminded them I couldn't and was TOLD that they would book me in for an in-person appointment at 3:30 pm their time (it was currently 3 pm their time when they told me that)...I TOLD them that was impossible and why and they INSISTED I HAD to be there in person for 3:30 pm. I told them I was 2.5 hrs away from an international airport and doubted I could even get a flight, so no, I wasn't going to be there. They called me difficult and other names, so I finally asked if they knew where Montana was on the map - they said yes - I asked if they could picture Montana in their mind as it appears on a map - yes - then I told them to stack another Montana on top and I was located on TOP of that!..."So, ma'am, you're saying you can't be here for a 3:30 appointment?"...I said there was absolutely no way and I wasn't hanging up till they found someone to answer my question. And that was one of my better conversations with the university staff.

 

[Mendalla]

I hear ya'. Let's just say that there are reasons Needles Hall, the admin building at the University of Waterloo sometimes got tagged "Needless Hell".

 

[KayTheCurler]

big hugs

Thanks - hugs are always good. I just needed to vent for a moment. All is well now.