Some of you know that I did a week in the hospital for a staph infection on my left index finger. Well thanks to some excellent care and a paltry $23,456, I am good as new. The total for the hospital was kept artificially low because I smuggled in my own Advil. That alone saved me a couple grand.
Generally I give the hospital, Capital Regional, high marks, but as with anything I write, there is a lesson. The lesson here is that to delight customers or patients, the goal is the same. Get it right ALL the time. My treatment required a 2 hour drip of anti-biotic followed by a 30 minute one. This was done both during the day and at night. Four of the five days this went off without a hitch. The evening drips went like this.
Start 2 hour drip at 10:30 pm
First drip ends at 12:30 pm
Start 30 minute drip 12:30 pm
Second drip ends 1:00 am
Sleep
Though I am usually asleep by 11 or so, I was able to work with these times. My internal clock wakes me at 5:30 am so there was a good night’s sleep of 6 and 1/2 hours.
Wednesday night, however, was just a tad off.
Start 2 hour drip at 11:00 pm
First drip ends at 1:00 am
Call for nurse at 1:00 am
Call for nurse at 1:30 am
Second drip started at 1:45 am
Second drip ends at 2:15 am
Call for nurse at 2:30 am to remove IV connection
Call for nurse at 3:00 am to remove IV connection
Get out of bed at 3:30 am and roll IV pump to nurses station
When asked how they can help me I say, ” Can you give me directions
to the elevators? I would like to go down to the next floor to see if
someone down there will remove this IV as I have been calling for a
nurse for over 2 hours.”
They had the IV disconnected in 5 minutes
Sleep around 4:30 am for 1 hour, wide awake at 5:30 am