Cartersville Medical Continued...

So I'm sitting in my office today when I get a call from a strange number.  I tentatively answer (Ugh - is this going to be a tele-marketer??) and was surprised to be speaking with the new Director of Cartersville Medical Center.  Other than my previous blog post, I have not made any more attempts to reach out to them.  I completely planned on it, but it was something I was hoping to do this weekend.  He said that someone had sent him a link to my blog ;)  and he was calling in reference to my latest post.

He was very polite and admitted that he only began his job on Monday. (Poor guy!)  He addressed each complaint made in my post and also admitted that he had no idea there was a room in the ER with a rolling door.  He said that he went on a hunt for the room with the door and when he finally found it, realized that it was the psych holding room (ha! - no jokes here please!)  He explained that the room was bare due to the possibilities of a psych patient hurting themselves and told me that the rolling door actually houses medical supplies, and a rolling door prevents break-ins and such from those patients.  I get that.  That's fine.  But that doesn't explain the dirty, used styrofoam coffee cup in the corner of the room, or some random patient's hospital bracelet lying in the floor.  He agreed and apologized.

He acknowledged the doctor who sat on her rump for 90% of our time there and admitted that she may need some "coaching".  He did make his case for her though - that doctors need to spend time on the computer to order labs, check on tests, etc.   I get that too, except that the amount of time she spent there was NOT warranted, given the 3 or 4 non-critical patients in the ER (I know they were non-critical because I saw their clipboards positioned in the "non-critical" side of the chart holder.  The "critical" side was empty.)

He revealed that he himself is a father of four, as well as a medical physician, and he understands the difference in treating a child and an adult.  He agreed that Will should not have been placed in the psych room, and that the nurses and doctors should have treated him (and myself) more politely, and with more urgency.  He promised to address each of my areas of complaint.

Apparently Cartersville Medical Center has been given a multi-million dollar grant to be used specifically for Emergency Room renovations.  He assured me that their intentions are to have a state-of-the-art Emergency Center, ALONG WITH the quality of care one would expect from the doctors and nurses in such a facility.  All in all, I was happy to speak with him.  I appreciate that he contacted me (versus me having to contact him) and I believe that he was earnest and sincere in his explanations and apologies.  I don't however, know that this gentleman understands what he's gotten himself into at Cartersville Medical Center as their new director.  I can only hope that he came from a hospital that gave a much higher quality of care and attention, and that knows the work he has ahead of him regardless of the millions of dollars spent on a new facility.

I'm not sure this call won me back as a potential patient.  In fact, I'll need to see it AND hear it before we make a trip back there.  But I did appreciate his call, and more importantly, I thought it important to share this info with you :)