6/27/09
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3 comments
Letter to the Editor
Decatur General Hospital employees are friendly, professional and caring
To The Daily: Earlier this month, I needed to have surgery at Decatur General Hospital. From the pre-registration to discharge, a five-day stay, the staff was professional, friendly and caring. I was extremely pleased with the quality of care and attention I received from the nurses on the ward as well as from the various attendants who came to my rooms to ask, “How are you feeling, Mr. England?” “Is there anything I can get for you or do for you?” The nurse responsible for the operating room also came by to talk with me about my experience in her operating room. Every day my surgeon came in to see me, and after my medical conditions and prognosis were discussed, he would ask if I was being treated well by the staff. Everyone was making a positive effort to make sure the patient was not left lacking. Will England
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Mr. England, when a hospital is losing business like DG has been over the past few years, you can bet that those who are left will develop a bedside manner fit for royalty. My experience at DG was COMPLETELY different. Ten years ago, my doctor came in to see me ONCE. The nurses were not helpful and certainly not caring. When I left that hospital, I told myself, they'll never see me again. I'm going to Parkway or Huntsville....anywhere but back there.
After our experience last Sunday night, we too are joining Nubnz at Parkway, Huntsville, or anywhere besides Decatur. I carried my husband to the Decatur ER with chest pains. There were about 15 to 20 people in the waiting area and 3 or 4 lined up at the reception desk. A desk with NO ONE at it. One man with some form of ID was talking to 3 or 4 women about what they were all going to do on the 4th of July. I don't know who he was maybe a well known heart surgeon, or perhaps part of the cleaning crew, or perhaps a nurse...who knows. All I know is I was trying to get someone to help me bring my husband in. This unknown gentleman with a Decatur General Hospital name tag on, turned once, glanced at me then turned back to the women and continued talking about what he would be doing over the 4th. It didn't take long to realize that there would be no help coming from that place. I rushed him to Parkway where he was whisked back to a treatment room within 5 minutes of my going inside and asking for help. Within 15 minutes his heart rate had dropped to 20 beats a minute and he was rushed into the "crash" room and they prepared to "zap" him with the paddles. One has to wonder where he would be now if I had stayed at Decatur General.
Maybe an even better postscript to the story is when I went back to Decatur General to try and inform someone who might care about what had happened. The only person they would allow me to talk to was patient advocate (whatever that means). She kept asking for the patients name and ABSOLUTELY DID NOT give me a chance to tell her what happened. I kept telling her that he was not a patient there and that I wanted SOMEONE/ANYONE to know why he was not. She told me she could not help me if I did not give her the patients name....DUH...the patient that was not a patient...if anyone can figure that one out please let me know. So I again left, went back to Parkway....you remember...the hospital where he was a patient,,,CAUSE THEY CARED enough to treat him! So GOODBYE Decatur General and HELLO Parkway.
They do have their problems