Before anything else, I have to say that the medical personnel that took care of me in Big Hospital were 99% the nicest and most caring of people and I felt i had the best of care from them. With that being said, I need to bring something that has me wondering the amount of mistakes that are happening in hospitals everywhere because of the “precautions” against transmission of the Wuhan virus. One thing is to hear on the news all the procedures that hospitals took for the pandemic. The other thing is to actually go through them, live and uncensored.
The missus took me to the ER and she had already warned me that she would not be allowed in with me like in other times. I walked in and announced to Reception Nurse I believe I was having a mild cardiac event. You’d think this would ring a bell or two other than one question (“what are you feeling?” ) and more in the realm of “OK, get you masked ass in here for initial diagnosis.” Nope, I was subjected to the new game in town: “Covid 20 questions or please follow this stupid protocol at the risk of your life.” It was not until Clipboard Nurse had all the appropriate boxes marked, I was finally started to get the ER care you expect to get in possible heart cases.
And now comes the thing that really bothers me: the masks. I am guessing some medical personnel might have been in the “At-Risk” category, but wearing a chin diaper, a mask with those double filters and a Home Depot face shield at the same time makes your effing speech difficult to comprehend!
I ended up having to say I was hard of hearing to some of the people wearing these combos so they would speak louder, and mind you, some of them were Latinos who are supposed to be loud to begin with. One imaging doctor ended up telling his young assistant to tell me what was going to happen after me complaining I could not understand & the kid went to task making me smile under my own mask
Now I have to wonder how many dumb mistakes have been committed because the transmission went out garbled? Either Medical People to Medical people or Medical people to patient, you know some stuff did not made it through and possibly end up hurting or killing somebody. And as Gun People, you know damn well that Medical Malpractice deaths were horribly high prior to the pandemic. It will be interesting to know what will the numbers reflect next year.
I got a bunch of instructions and recommendations on the way out which I intend to read with care and review with my primary doctor soon. I already contacted him about what happened so he can access all the reports and you can bet your ass I will be reviewing everything with him just to be 100% sure.
And to end funny note: I obviously ate hospital food these past 2 days (I actually lost 4 pounds) and one of the prescriptions I got was for a laxative. Coincidence? I think not!
I learned, in my career working in nuclear power plants, to use three-way communication. You tell me what I need to do, I tell you what I heard you tell me, you confirm that what I said was what you intended.
“Turn valve SLC-102 to open.”
“I heard turn valve SLC-102 to open.”
“Correct.”
Pilots and air traffic control do much the same.
I use it in my everyday life. When someone tells me something, I repeat it back to them, to make sure I have it correct. It really works.
Although I’m mid-30’s, I already have some hearing loss, enough so that I have realized I’m already reading lips. I don’t need to be looking at a person’s mouth to do it, but if they’re quiet or mumbling, the visual cues are almost a necessity for me to understand what they’re saying. This is especially true in noisier environments.
So I have taken to making gestures at my ears and playing it up. So far, I’m running about 50% success in getting people to drop the mouth burqas so that I can understand them.
(I’m also not shy about claiming medical reasons for not wearing one myself, mentioning I have asthma if they ask for justification. They don’t need to know the real reason – that I AM fully N95 certed, and I won’t wear them because they’re nearly-useless at best)
So far, I’ve only gotten tossed out of three places.
Yes, “read back”. ATC procedures use that for some communications but not all.
Another part of ATC procedure is the use of certain wording and avoidance of other. For example, instructions are always positive statements, not negative ones. “Hold short of runway 35” rather than “don’t enter runway 35”. I believe there’s actually an approved ATC phrase book. It also comes with a standard speaking speed, though one of my ATC friends was known to go 50% over that… 🙂
AND they generally give you the Beagle Look, don’t they?
They do, me.
This was taught to me as “the four parts of communication” 1 what I say to you. 2 what you hear me say 3 what you say to me. 4 what I hear you say.
If any part of this fails then communication did not take place. This is what “ok” in response to a command is not a good answer. You don’t know want they heard. This also places communication clarity firmly as the responsibility of the transmitter.
1 go open valve A-23. 2 ok. 3 what valve are you going to open? 4 the one over there. 5 grrrrrrrrrr
They have not correctly identified the valve to open. They have not acknowledged they are to open the valve. The number of times “they” have closed the value because it was already opened and report “ok, done” is scary as hell.
There will be no medical malpractice deaths this year just more COVID-19 deaths. At least that is what the paperwork will say.
Are you telling me that the ER people determined you were full of s… And needed to relax?