Ravings

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Check out the latest of Mike's Ravings below:

"WORKING???"
How long do you think a customer would wait in our office to be served??? Three hours?? Six hours?? Longer!! Nope Wrong!! Our customers would expect to be served almost immediately and if there was any delay, they would expect to have a prompt apology and explanation as to what was causing the delay and when they might be served. In other words we would bend over backwards to communicate with them and work hard to ensure that we were doing everything possible to resolve their issue.
So how is it that an elderly person can spend 11 hours in our emergency department and be almost totally ignored for the entire time. When she needed to use the facilities, I had to track someone down to provide some service. Had I not been there, how long would she have waited for someone to simply ask how was she doing and was there anything that she needed.
It is a sad commentary on our society that I can get faster and more caring health care for my dog than I can for a family member. Is the problem not enough resources?? A more recent visit with another family member took 2 ½ hours during which she received less than 10 minutes of actual attention. Knowing several other people who were also there, I can confirm that their experience was exactly the same.
Doing a bit of analysis, I did a count of the approximate number of patients actually inside the ER and estimated that there were no more than 30 patients actually inside the ER at that time. I also did a count of staff that I could actually see at one time and counted 18 staff present. Assuming that not all staff visible were nurses and doctors, let's say that 10 staff were actually hands on with patient treatment and allowing for a mere 50% of there time actually working with patients, one would expect that each patient would receive about 10 minutes of attention each hour. Nope!! Not even close!!
It wouldn't take a genius to make a few visits to the ER and ask patients just how they feel about the service that they are receiving. Check and see how many people are leaving without service after waiting hours in frustration.
This past weekend, I gave myself a nasty little cut with a grinder. Certainly not life threatening, but as a gaping wound was definitely in need to stitches in order to get it closed properly. My decision was that a life time of slowly seeping blood from an unhealed wound was far superior to the frustration of dealing with our medical system.
So I have been talking to a good friend of mine, The Jet, and for an agreed upon number of doggy treats he is willing to see if he can get me in to see his doctor. He assured me though that if I whined and didn't behave myself while I was getting stitched up that I would just have to find my own veterinarian the next time.

Mike Hickey The Go-To-Guy