Peace of Mind for Family is Priceless

In my last blog I addressed the issue of lengthy ER waits. Staff shortages, combined with increased patient use, have stretched the average ER visit to slightly more than four hours. Although it does nothing to shorten the wait, patients surveyed stated that regular updates from the ER staff would reduce the aggravation of long delays in being treated.

Today I witnessed a version of that sort of effective communication. I was in the waiting area of a clinic that provides a single, specialized procedure. Evidently, a patient was instructed to arrive at the facility earlier than her scheduled procedure because she needed to have blood drawn for lab tests. There were no delays at the lab, located elsewhere in the building, so she arrived at the clinic significantly ahead of schedule but was, nonetheless, escorted into the treatment area upon her arrival.

Standard information sheets are given to patients several days before the procedure takes place. Included in that information is what can be expected in terms of the overall length of time from arrival to dismissal.

Anyone who has worked in health care knows that such information is only an estimate. Variables such as unexpected difficulties with the procedure itself and the rapidity of the patient’s recovery from anesthesia can affect the time frame. It is a fact though, that a vast number of people who are not in the medical field, including several of my family members, consider such information to be set in stone.

I was impressed when a nurse came into the waiting area and spoke to a gentleman who had accompanied the above mentioned patient to the clinic. The nurse explained that, yes, the patient had been in the treatment area for awhile but, because she had arrived before her appointment, the procedure had not yet begun. "I don’t want you to worry that the procedure is taking longer than you expected," she said.

I know this example might seem trivial but it isn’t. A few years ago I underwent an outpatient procedure that needed to be performed at a hospital 50 miles from my home. My husband was told the approximate time that I would be able to go home. It seems he didn’t hear the word ‘approximate.’

I breezed through the procedure but there was a minor problem with my recovery from the anesthesia, which extended my stay by about 90 minutes. The problem was that no one told my husband. As the minutes ticked by, his imagination began to run wild and he became internally frantic (he would never outwardly show that he was frantic).

My husband would have been spared that emotional turmoil if only someone had taken a minute (or less) to inform him of what was happening in the inner sanctum of the OR, just as the nurse did today.

What are your thoughts? Does your employer have a system in place for communicating with family members?