Top Ten Hospital Peeves

The school nurse sent me the information required for entry into the ninth grade. Part of that information required a current physical exam, on an approved form. The “health history” section MUST be completed and signed by the parent. I can not think of anything I dread more than the health history. When you have a special needs child, the health history is infinite. Most of the time I have to give the health history at the hospital, for each admission. My son is hospitalized a lot. It’s not just “one” health history that I have to give; I have to give a health history to every doctor, every resident, every nurse at every shift change. That’s a lot of history. So it got me thinking about my pet peeves as a caregiver at the hospital. I have limited it to ten.

10. Noisy nurses at night when you are trying to sleep.
9. Broken hospital chairs for parents to sleep on.
8. Failure of any hospital personnel to introduce themselves- This is not Cheers-everybody does not know your name.
7. Operational errors-We stayed at one hospital that only carried small and large diapers for children. My son was twelve and the large diapers were too big. This caused his diaper to leak every time he went to the bathroom which required more underpads, full bed changes and more hospital personnel (he required several people to help change him and roll him over). The cost for this error over the course of a day to this hospital was phenomenal.
6. Failure of nurses to know how to use a feeding tubes for meds.
5. Toilet Paper-Purchasing jumbo rolls the size of a 747 may be a good business practice on paper but I don’t enjoy tearing toilet paper sheet by sheet each and every time I use the washroom.
4. Bathrooms for Special Needs Patients-Most hospitals have handicapped bathrooms but placing a bench or a bed in there so I could change a special needs child would be helpful.
3. Covered Parking for the Handicapped-When I arrive at a facility, I need to have covered parking. I have to take the wheelchair out of the car and assemble it. I need to put some pieces on the ground. I need to take time to get the child out of the car and secured in the wheelchair. I can not do this when it is raining, snowing or any other weather conditions. If you want me to spend my health care dollars at your facility, I need to get in the building. How much money are we talking about? In 2004, my son’s billed charges were almost $400,000 dollars with 98% being spent at one hospital (we had six hospitalizations that year). That’s a lot of dollars for covered parking.
2. Medication errors-I can’t begin to tell you how many times in a hospital visit there are errors. They can range from giving the wrong medicine, the wrong strength, the wrong dose, a generic version of a brand name that doesn’t work or late meds.
1. Health History-I think I have given this at least a thousand times in his fourteen years. I would love it if they could keep an electronic version that I could simply read and update as needed upon each admission.