Swedish Hospital

Here we explore the systems that are in place that have become crutches rather than tools or tools of war in some cases. The nurse stations serve as battle stations, but who's the enemy?

Surgery was performed at 11:30am yesterday and it is now 24 hours later and not a single word from a doctor or anyone on how things went with the surgery, what's next, how long I will be here, nothing. I am ignored and left alone in my room with no idea what is happening with my health, my foot; nothing. What an incredibly lonely feeling for someone in recovery and looking for information related to their own health. I'm afraid I'll end up like the pizza I ordered last night that just sat there, dying while nurses came and went, never once looking at it to get to the person that paid for it and is recovering from surgery in your hospital just hours before and surely just feet from you, yet the pizza died and I went hungry but for the turkey sandwich I took from the nourishment room fridge. 

This is the nurses kitchen and it does not matter what the sign says. Why not invest in a kitchen for the staff rather than sow the seeds of resentment to be reaped daily at the cost of your patient care as well as employees? We used to own the last mile with pride and now it's automated along with every other mile, though the last mile is the mile that makes it all come together and without it, none of the preceding miles matter. 

The technology side of care is a rare breed of tried and true physics lessons come to life, mixed with lighting-speed proliferation of communications and medical technology.  This whole gradient of systems, tools, individual devices and much more, requires a certain IQ level just baseline. This, coupled with the long hours, extreme psychological conditions, social contract adherence and more make it an even more difficult job to hire and train for. There is a reason that traveling nurses are a thing. 

In a vacuum, any one of the conditions described above would be a worthy adversary but manageable with focus. It's the confluence of all of these rivulets to tributaries and up that becomes overwhelming very quickly, particularly when the stakes are so high. It does not help when there is an absolute cacophony of alarms and alerts literally clogging the bandwith of the service-provider. This is one area we feel that Bioware may be able to pick up some slack. With the right resources around us, we could create a single and simple dashboard for the nurses that could not only handle the multi-platform tasking and present this as a straightforward, simple and friendly interface with positive sounds and feedback to measure some counter to the symphony of alerts but could also free up some space and time for some more human touch in this ever-critical last mile of service.

Technology in anyones pockets bring a chance to foster growth and education in the very field these humans wish to commit to. Not ironically, these same devices invite and in many cases demand the attention of the aforementioned mind for drivel. 

During my stay, I noticed that the main information board in my room was sliding down in the plexiglass frame. I was able to reach the paper behind the plexiglass and pull it up to get it straight. I noticed signs that this paper had been slowly slipping for years, as if metaphorically, and the staff had adjusted to the new and ever-changing grid that was presented on which to fill in patient name and game-time information for both the patient and staff. To see this slippage in front of you, as a patient, brings to the forefront of your mind just what you are facing in terms of care. 

The night of my surgery, I was looking forward to eating more than anything. I had been on NPO for 2 days essentially and had such a busy lead-up to the surgery with agreeing to let at least two toes go and even went under anesthesia with sharpie x's on my 4 and 5 toes on my right foot and imagining what that might look like after it healed. I had a CBT appointment at 1pm and it was a video call so I hopped on while I was being transported back to my room on a hospital bed. I was on my earbuds and have my folding phone so it was very much an appointment for me and one that I needed because the CBT would sure help if I had it in focus during my recovery that I was entering at that moment. In fact, the nurses had given me too much insulin before surgery and I was in extreme danger with a blood-sugar level of 43. That's very low and potentially fatal. The nurses noticed this during routine checking and I was on with my CBT therapist while they injected my IV with sugar to keep me alive. I noted that this was not the exact type of care I trusted if the nurses could not control a situation that very much needed to be controlled.

After all of that dust settled and I went back on completely-ignored status, I was starving. I was able to get my dear friend to send me money, which I do not have, to order a pizza because that's what sounded good. I ordered Rico's Pizza on Door Dash and put: For Room #6273 prominently on the order, in fact, that was the customer name: Room #6273. I hit pay on Door Dash and waited. About 40 minutes later, I received a message from Door Dash that my order was delivered. I looked at the message and there was a photo, taken by the delivery driver of the pizza sitting in a nondescript hospital setting with a nurse in scrubs right in the photo, 4 feet from my pizza. 

I never got my pizza that night or ever. I told a nurse the next day and she recommended I get a refund from Door Dash. It goes without saying that the money was the least of my concerns although, given that I am -$9.67 in my account and the pizza was $32 with all of the fees and tip, I could sure use it. The lack of any accountability is staggering and very concerning and the main reason I opted out of a second surgery that I had to literally pry out of a nurse because of course, I had not seen a single doctor or anyone from the medical staff concerning my surgery that was just performed. This whole story is a story of complete failure of a system and I should be furious. Beyond furious, I should be taking action and I am. I imagined the idea, bought the URL with the last of my money left over after the pizza that my friend sent me, and created Bioware right there in Swedish Hospital.

5:35pm on a Wednesday night and we are attempting to call Swedish Hospital for medications related to surgery. We called a total of 6 times and each time, even if a live person transferred me, each extension is no longer in operation. Out of desperation from pain, we called a number that called us during our break from Swedish Hospital. The recording says that there is no operator at this hour. 

We would have an easier time going to the hospital in person and spend the money to get there. The phone system at Swedish Hospital is a road to nowhere and I suspect they know this and encourage it to save costs. 

After the 6 failed phone calls yesterday and the pain on the throttle, I ventured down to Swedish Hospital again for some answers as to why I didn't receive and pain medication whatsoever to take home after a 4-inch butcher's cut through my foot was performed.

Another way to say this is that I found it easier to get transportation to Swedish Hospital in rush-hour traffic, find parking, work our way through the catacombs of the underbelly of the health complex, check in to the ER, get my vitals, go through the insurance particulars, talk with a doctor and get discharged than dare try to call the abyss that is the Swedish Hospital phone system.

I mentioned this failed attempt to reach any human other than a switchboard operator to a few employees of the hospital and was shrugged at each time with a "Yeah, well, you know" look. This compounded apathy is so egregious and disheartening.