Monday, July 11, 2005

You can't be serious!

So after H weird 'attack' we decided to get a 'second' opinion by going to the county general hospital....which is the FREE county hospital. We'd never been there before.

It was a huge old looking building that looked like something out of a Stephen King movie for starters. We knew what room we had to go to but nothing more. We stopped @ the security gate to inquire as to where to park. We told the guard where we needed to be & where we should park. He replied w/ a smile & a rather chipper accent that, that was a very good question. He instructed us to go up the street to the 2nd stop sign & park in the parking structure, follow the blue line into the building & someone @ the front desk would tell us where to go.

I thought that was a bit wierd. I couldn't tell if he was being sacrcastic or serious.

We had a heck of a time finding any blue line in the parking structure & finally ended up on the top floor of the structure.

We followed the blue line into the double glass doors. There were 2 more doors that were subsequently locked. If it weren't for the cars in the parking lot, I would have thought the place was abandoned. THere was what seemed to be a speakered entrance but it was broken & barely hanging on the walls which all looked very dated.

We exitted that entrance & noticed some people that had come up some stairs on the side but there was a sign that pointed down the stairs that read: Psychiatric Unit.

I did NOT want to go down those stairs. Inevitably we did.

Yep, there was a blue line circling the parking lot on that level...but it didn't look like it led anywhere but in a circle. Across, what looked like a break area & down some more steps, sure enough, a blue line leading into another building.

We had to pass through metal detectors. Those security guards told us to head all the way up the hallway & we would see room 1020, which was where we were instructed to go.

Room 1020 was a waiting room/pharmacy. There were double paned windows w/ workers behind them. One was for the pharmacy, one for registration & a few for payment of fees.

Of course NOONE was behind 'registration'. After standing there a few moments waiting, H inquired @ the fee window where to go. The employee informed us that we needed to wait in front of the window for the chart nurse because the nurse was busy right now but if they walked in & didn't see anyone they would just leave.

While we waited I surveyed the room & the people in it. A security guard was in the lobby standing around. Then another security guard came in & purposefully walked around the entire lobby w/ a latex gloved hand @ his side & a non-latexed hand on his billy-club. He told one person not to talk on their cell phone. Then he left. THere was a guy w/ crutches, w/ a bandaged foot, that looked homeless, that tried to say something to him but the guard ignored him. Occasionally there were announcements over a speaker for specefic people to come & enter through the 'brown door'.

One lady walked in w/ a bag of stuff. She set it down on the floor near me in a corner & walked away. In a few moments she came back, picked it up & left.

So we stood there, in our spot, for about 10 minutes. NO chart nurse to be seen. Numerous people had walked in & out of the room behind the window but noone came up to the desk.
Finally H asked the guy behind the fee window again & he went & got the 'chart nurse'. It was a guy we had previusly seen walk in & out of that room.

We explained H symptoms & he asked if we had gone to registration yet? ugh!
He instructed us to go to the ER room & that they would register him there & then probably want to take care of him there anyway since H symptoms required tests that would be done in the next room over. He instructed us to 'follow the black line' all the way down the hall & it would take us to the ER.

So we exitted room 1020, determined to get to ER. We look down the floor & see 2 black lines headed in opposite directions, one straight & one to the left!!! I laughed @ the ridiculousness of it. There was also a black & white checkered line. We supposed, for a second, that he could have meant the checkered one & decided to take a chance & follow the black line to the left!

A ways down we were stopped by a security guard. We explained that we were instructed to follow the black line to the ER. She said "No, the ER is back that way, see those stripes on the wall? Turn right @ the wall w/ the stripes." This was now beyond ridiculous.

So we back tracked a bit to the striped wall. After turning a ways down that hall we were again stopped by security. We explained that we were trying to get to the ER!

He told us, it was 'right this way' BUT I had to wait in the 'waiting' area because that's what the next security guard on the other side of the doors would tell me to do anyway. I found one open seat in a corner. I saw the same lil' lady w/ her bag of stuff. She came & sat down next to another person & it seemed like they knew each other. I think she pulled a sandwich out of her bag & started sharing it w/ the person next to her. She left soon but left her bag under the seat.

There was a man & it seemed like an older daughter requesting to get the 'valuables' of his daughter & the security kept talking about her being a 'Jane Doe' & trying to locate her.

H came back very quickly & said we could leave. The doctor insisted he was FINE & that H didn't need any tests to check for a 'stroke' because he hadn't had one.

Apparently 'public health care' is a JOKE!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for visiting our tiny bit of space...I LOVE it when you leave comments. Thank you SO much.