A while back there was a story in the news about a lady who fell in a hospital and was told to call an ambulance.
TorontoEmerg points out that paramedics would have the equipment to move a fall patient without damaging the spine.
So it sounds like the real problem is that they didn't explain, or didn't successfully explain, to the lady why they needed an ambulance.
I've only had one ER visit in my life, for a broken bone when I was a kid. I didn't understand what was going on, and because of that I thought they weren't going to fix me, at all, ever. Even though I've learned far more about diagnosis and triage in the intervening years and know intellectually that their actions were appropriate, I still can't describe it in detail because it makes me flash back to that feeling of terror, and to this day I find anything having to do with bones absolutely squicky.
Even in less serious situations, lack of communication can be upsetting. I once asked my doctor if I could be vaccinated against chicken pox. She ordered tests to make sure I didn't already carry the antibody, then when they'd confirmed that her office called me to schedule an appointment to be vaccinated. I showed up at the appointment, and the doctor asked me "Where's the vaccine?" I looked at her, she looked at me, I looked at her, she looked at me... It turned out she was supposed to give me a prescription for the vaccine (she hadn't) which I was then to get filled at the pharmacy and bring back to her so she could inject me. I felt awkward and embarrassed, and it caused a bit of a kerfuffle with the office scheduling because she had to take the next patient while I filled the prescription and then fit me back in for my injection, and I had to pressure the pharmacy to fill the prescription as quickly as possible because they were waiting for me upstairs at the doctor's office.
All this gets me thinking: how many of people's complaints about the medical system are due to flawed communication? So much is obvious and everyday to medical professionals but completely new and rather scary to patients. How many complaints would be averted if medical professionals were able to successfully explain processes and reasoning and unknowns and expectations to patients?
2 comments:
I think the answer to the title question is probably a lot. (Very precise, I know.)
There's a book that's been on my list for ages that's about how poor communication and cultural misunderstanding led to the death of a child. It's just a larger version of what you went through, I think.
It's this book.
It sounds awful to say so because it's about the death of a child, but isn't that the coolest name for epilepsy!
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