So, Administration came up with the wonderful idea to improve customer service at my hospital in a multi-phase system. Among the great things our already burnt out nursing staff can look forward to is 24 hour visitation, Starbucks coffee drink carts going room to room, waiting rooms remodeled with Ethan Allen furnature, massages, valet parking, 24 hour room service, wifi internet service, Flatscreen tvs, Ipods, DVD and a blockbuster video store. The list goes on and on, but you get my point. In a nutshell, my hospital is going to become the hilton of hospitals!!!
It's a hotel alright atleast that's how most of our patients act, but we don't have starbucks delivered from room to room yet like abbaking's Hospital, Darn!!!
I work in a hospital that has most of those services and although we don't have "visiting hours" we do have quiet hours, and we do ask our pt's and families to be respectful of others. We have couches and recliners for them to sleep in and I will bring them pillows and blankets, mostly because I want them to go to sleep!
I like that they can order room service because then they don't ask me for food and drinks, they just pick up the phone and order whatever they want, pt's eat more because they pick what they want to eat.
We have great security that will back us up with rude or disrespectful pt's and visitors.
I also want to add that I love working at this facility, all the concerns that are being brought up are valid concerns, but it is not as bad as people are imagining it.
rpbear I agree with you. I don't think it's that we don't want wonderful things for our patients and families, I think most of us do. It's that the hospitals spend so much money on these luxuries and not nursing. I want my patients to have room service, personal massages, etc. but I also want to not have so many patients that I can't take proper care of them.
Wow, I don't think I can add much of anything since everyone's pretty much nailed it!
I really can't see the non-ending visiting hours where you don't have all private rooms. As it is now, we have several privates that are kept for isolation, VIPs, certain 1:1 situations, employees, and those who actually (RARELY) decide to shell out the bucks for a private room if they would otherwise be getting semi-private. Technically if you have a private room, you can have your visitor stay 24 hours, but we're pretty clear at the desk that they are to STAY in the rooms, LOL, and not keep bugging the staff!
As for everyone else, visitors DO NOT stay in the rooms. They also get kicked out when visiting hours are over, sometimes we extend it a bit, but not much. To be blunt, it's WRONG to expect the patient in the next bed to have to put up with a roomful of people who are chatting with their roomate at midnight! I have no bones about going to those visitors who are still there at ten pm (hour past visitors leaving) and letting them know that security will be making rounds shortly, and it's best to be GONE by then.
Seriously, I can't even imagine administration expecting 24 hour visitation in semi-private rooms to be a good thing. I also don't imagine that any of THEM would EVER allow themselves to be in that situation, right?!?
I blame boards of directors for this. Appearance is everything in most service industries, thus Press Ganey and smilesmilesmile. I keep wondering how universal health care would change things. I agree everyone should be able to have safe and effective care. However, I do NOT want to pay for expensive nonsense with my tax money, and I seriously question whether others will want to either, if everyone gets insurance. (I realize I am already paying for it to some extent.) It would be like saying, If you agree no-one should starve and so sometimes people should get food stamps, they ought to be able to spend the food stamps at Brennan's or Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Totally not right. Starbucks and 24 hour visitation is not necessary (except for a dying patient) and should be paid for by the individual for those craving luxuries.
OMG, I just re-read the post about fancy waiters, leather menus and room service! As it is, we have WAY too many patients with prima donna complexes; gee, let's give them yet another reason to feel they are WAY more special than the next guy (and that their nurses are, in fact, just waitresses in scrubs).
I can also see me smacking Starbucks out of the hand of the guy who's NPO for surgery in two hours, and him arguing that "the hospital GAVE it to me, it MUST be ok".
I'm gonna be sick (no pun intended). Then again, maybe I OUGHT to get sick, and go to one of THOSE Hilton Hospitals! I could use a good massage...
So, Administration came up with the wonderful idea to improve customer service at my hospital in a multi-phase system. Among the great things our already burnt out nursing staff can look forward to is 24 hour visitation, Starbucks coffee drink carts going room to room, waiting rooms remodeled with Ethan Allen furnature, massages, valet parking, 24 hour room service, wifi internet service, Flatscreen tvs, Ipods, DVD and a blockbuster video store. The list goes on and on, but you get my point. In a nutshell, my hospital is going to become the hilton of hospitals!!!
:angryfire
Why would anyone ever want to be dismissed from such an environment? Thinking I need to visit your neck of the woods and develop some kind of illness that won't keep me from enjoying the room service and the wifi.
Holy Cow!!! I just wonder how nice that Ethan Allen furniture will look after being puked and defecated on several hundred times! For crying out loud people, there are so many things to spend many on that a healthcare facility actually needs.
oh, dear god, am i glad i don't work in acute care anymore
ditto-but who is going to be left at bedside when all us "older" nurses need care ourselves? this is so insane and scary--bless all you acute care nurses out there putting up with this horsehockey!!:bowingpur
. what on earth are hospital administrators thinking these days???!!!
don't be silly..why in the world would you believe that they are thinking?????:angryfire
A couple of years ago my hospital had room service for their meals with leather bound menus, food delivered by waiter in suit with black tie carrying a silver tray. Patients seem to act more like they were in a fancy hotel and we were their personal servants. I was glad to see that go. One thing I do like is each patient has a TV/Lap top computer with internet access that hangs on a bar that can be pulled anywhere around the bed or chair- it keeps them occupied. It would be nice though if they would realise one day that staffing ratios have alot to do with patient satisfaction too. They spend millions on landscaping. This is a small cornor of where I work, doesn't that look like the country club?
I've been a patient in hospitals several times and I can honestly say I didn't care who brought in my meals as long as they were edible and came regularly :). I never really felt well enough to need a whole lot of extras. When I had my first baby they brought in a big fancy dinner (steak, cold duck, plastic goblets--I guess they didn't want any glass around raging hormones ) and frankly it was lost on me. All I wanted to do was look at my baby . And anyway, the hospital makes the best box lunches they keep in the fridge for hungry PP moms.
Hopefully those tux-clad waiters are washing their uniforms in hot water after each shift and sanitizing the leather menus .
We do have wireless in all of our hospitals here and that is pretty handy. Most of the patients aren't up to it, but it seems to entertain their visitors :chuckle.
) and frankly it was lost on me. All I wanted to do was look at my baby 
.
Miami NightNurse
284 Posts
It's a hotel alright atleast that's how most of our patients act, but we don't have starbucks delivered from room to room yet like abbaking's Hospital, Darn!!!