Dear Duke and UNC:
I love both of your facilities. You are the best in North Carolina. You are the best in this country. You may be the best in the world. I think you each should teach one another some of your strengths. I think you should share what you learned from your weaknesses. Kind of like with your sporting teams. "You got to give a little, take a little, that's how you live a little..."
A few simple measures I would love to see you learn from one another:
Medical websites
Duke:
Great website and navigation tool. Love the section on finding a doctor and their listed information. Very helpful. The healthview tool is phenomenal and so informative. Especially for a pulmonary/transplant/lymphoma/diabetic/ent/gi issues patient with a daughter who sees a cardiologist/pulmonologist/special infant care/entopthamologist/neurodevelopmentalist. It allows me to check my appointments, schedule my appointments, view my test results and so much more. Whoever came up with this system, brilliant. Now please teach UNC how to get one started. Excuse me UNC if you have one already. I have tried searching for one, and have yet to find it.
Medical Facility
UNC: Beautiful and very large. The indoors really impress me with their cancer patient awareness artwork/photography. I really like the personal aspect of connecting the hospital with patients and care. Seeing these as a survivor of PTLD, was very comforting and encouraging. I wish the hospitals could share stories and faces of patients like this in the hospital more often. I would love this type of artwork to be displayed at Duke.
Parking
Duke and UNC: Where does the money for parking go? Why are you charging patients money to park when they already have medical bills, co pays, traveling, time off, etc. being taking out of their pocket? I am sure there is a good reason. I really see a need for cheaper parking for chronic care patients and their families. Actually, why can't it all just be free?
To ALL Surgeons, Doctors, Nurses, Therapist, Phlebotomists, Housekeeping:
"When you are speaking to your team after a game, never talk about the kid who was the star of the game. Talk about what your other players did to help the team win. Be sure to spread the wealth... Then have individual meetings with one to three players to praise and reinforce. Make sure you touch them." -- Mike Krzyzewski
“I think leadership is never singular. In a good organization, it’s plural.” -- Mike Krzyzewski
Thanks for listening.
What do you love about your medical facility?
As an employee at Duke, I agree with you on all of the above! :) The employees pay bookoos of money for parking too - no fun! I don't understand where the money goes or why patients are made to pay to park.
ReplyDeleteI love my nurses, especially the one I'd see for most of my clinic visits. She recently retired so her replacement has BIG shoes to fill.
ReplyDeleteThe parking I can do without. Even if you find a place to park then at least one of the elevators is broken so you have to climb the stairs. I feel like a mountain goat (and the last time I had to do it on crutches. Such a nightmare)
I agree about parking! Brady is seen at Duke, and paying to park with no other options available has always seemed odd to us as well. Not to mention, quite a hike to the hospital if your child isn't feeling well.
ReplyDeleteI agree about parking. My hubby was in the hospital for bypass surgery and therefore out of work. I don't work. We live paycheck to paycheck, so coming up with the parking money was actually hard. But other then that, this heart hospital was great! I live on Long Island.
ReplyDeleteFrom way over in the midwest, the parking at out medical buildings (many...large...) is free if you get validated at your appointment, or if you use vallet service. I use vallet....they are so nice always, and then I don't get worn out hiking to where I have to go. The nurses I've had are really nice and thoughtful too, but the place is usually crowded and waiting areas get grubby. Caring and concern shown by staff help tremendously.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great side by side comparison and suggestion list! We only have one hospital in our area, not nearly as big as these with small medical services offered in old homes (converted to medical)surrounding the area, it's quite unique and we are blessed with excellent docs. As for parking we live in such a beautiful and temperate climate it's not a problem and all sidewalks are wheelchair friendly.
ReplyDeleteThat is Santa Barbara!
Love your new blog Trish, looking forward to visiting often!
blessings always,
julia
We go to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center with our son. The people at the Cardiac Transplant Center are the most amazing life affirming souls ever. They are our family, our friends, our angels. The equipment is state of the art, the doctors recognized world wide and they treat heart transplants like "just another day at the office" ! Talk about reassurance !
ReplyDeleteWhat needs to be addressed: Bathrooms in the CCU ! I spent months there with my son and it would have been nice to have our own bathroom and shower like we do on the step down floor.
and yes PARKING ! It is horribly expensive and combined with tolls a day at Columbia for his regular caths and tests and visits can run us over $100 and that doesn't count eating or drinking a cup of coffee !!!!
Sillly complaints from a very thankful mommy !
We've spent some time at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC, with our daughter. Parking there, while cramped, is actually pretty cheap and the free valet service is great.
ReplyDeleteAnother great thing at Children's -- though I've never had to use it -- is the awesome multi-language translation service available 24/7. Seriously, they've got speakers of at least 15 languages available. Cool.
Bathrooms in public areas need to be more wheelchair/stroller friendly.
Concierge service for families of surgery patients is great.
Private lactation rooms throughout the hospital are great as is the staff's helpfulness in storing breastmilk.
My one complaint is that I really wish the staff would refer to me by MY name instead of calling me "Mom." I'm the mother of five kids but not the mother of every nurse, doctor, assistant, etc. A quick glance at my daughter's chart will show my name.
OK, one more complaint. The cafeteria food. I suppose it's a universal problem but ... yuck. Burgers, pizza and fries were cheap and plentiful. But healthful options were very limited and three times the price of the junk food.
Oh - one more nice thing is the Parent's Letter project. A really nice way to hear about the experiences of other parents.
Overall, we're so thankful to all the staff at Children's for taking such good care of our baby.
I have two kids. They both have health issues. My daughter has a specialist at Johns Hopkins (Dr. Ben Carson). My son also has Dr Carson as well as a pediatric dermatologist specialist at Hopkins. They are great for rare conditions but their in hospital patient care isn't the best. My son has specialists at University of Maryland Medical Center. Again...they are great but not great about patient care. My favorite hospital is GBMC (Greater Baltimore Medical Center)....they saved my daughter. She is the only child born alive in the state of Maryland with the cord wrapped around her neck five times. They are the best!
ReplyDeleteWe are at A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE, several times a year for pulmonology for my younger son, and urology for my older one. We're also in the ER a few times a year with various kid things. I LOVE the doctors and nurses at A.I.- they are kind, gentle, and loving towards the children. The rsident who came and told me that my older son had enlarged kidneys was sympathetic and answered all my questions. I love the volunteers who come and hand out food, because when you're by yourself at the hospital, you really don't want to have to leave your child's side to go eat. The parking is free, and they have a valet service from 8 am to 5 pm. They also have a playground, and the Ronald McDonald House is right across the street. The only thing I don't love is rather minor- the ER parking! On the occasions that I have driven my kids to the ER, the parking is really, really ffar from the door. Not so fun when it's snowing and you're lugging a 30-pound toddler in feetie PJs. A.I. is wonderful, and much closer to my home then CHOP, which is where we would go if A.I. didn't exist. We are so blessed to have it within a half hour drive!
ReplyDeletehey its me i have followed ur lovely fam through the cf husband blog for years you may or may not recognise me from the occasional comments but just so you know again i have charge and i have been in hosp with many cf people now things i love and HATE bout the kids hosp here and the adults hosp here that i go to number one i love about both THEY ARE BOTH CONNECTED TOGETHER via corridores and stuff like rivht next door to each other same grounds also womans private research centre and a physc unit the reason that i love that kids and adults are right next door is coz when i transfered across i had records about as big as a room LOL im sure you know about that one so basicaly they didnt have to send my history far think it even stayed in the same room now things i loved about the kids it had a starlight room it had a garden it had play therapists i loved having people come and visit i had many dif people come in the nruses were like fam the things i hated well first was being in hosp but dont we all hate that one LOL but other than that very very ovious one i hated that soemtiems drs were late i hated the fact that they didnt really understand charge syndrome sometimes i hated the drs who would come in and talk to mum and not me HEY I UNDERSTAND YOU TALK TO ME oh parking is our big hate to we would jstu park in the street um parking round here is bad fullstop so a few of the mums in the kids hosp one of the rooms that one of my friends was in looked over a disabled carpark with six spots free parking so she would stand and look out her window and check a free spot form three floors up then shed come into our room so soemtiems shed say oh his carspots gone um no dad didnt really have a designated spot he never uses disabled spots with me but when theres hardly anyparking was all he could do LOL things i love bout the adults i have a great team of drs like i did in the kids everyone tries to do the right thing things i hate people beleive that coz your better you can go home yes thats all very well yes of course lady we dotn want to be here but hows he going to mannage at home with out an ot assesment they hgave a two story house that is wat mum said to a dr bout grandpa once the fact that there arent enough resources so they r allways understaffed and not enough beds
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