My wife and I went to TV Hospital for the first time last evening to visit one of her friends who was laid up.
That being said, I have worked in the medical field for alomost 40 years now.
Almost 30 of them in a hospital, the last 10 doing mobile x-ray. So I kind of know what I'm saying here.
Iy took us almost 15 minutes to find her friends room. While the volunteers at the front desk gave us a floor, my wife had to call her friend twice on her cell because we could not find her. Believe it, THIS IS TRUE! There are NO names on the doors outside the patients rooms. Nothing to indicate oxygen in use, pts who are diabetics, pre-op or post-op, etc. (I did see one sign about precautionary issues for a pt who had vertigo, it looked like someone had printed it up on a Zerox). Then when we finally found her room, there was nothing in her room to indicate her friend's name (on the bed, wall, etc) or that she was a diabetic.
This is a recipe for a disaster in the making. Granted it has been 10-12 years since I worked at a hospital, but this disregard for lack of data to a visitor on a patient could have some serious side effects.
We we taught, no name, no exam no matter what the nurse said. Arm bands? Yes, some patients have them, so don't. Again, no ID, no exam.
The last hospital I worked at had patients names and room numbers on a pin-board, so you knew right where to find their room.
Now hippa is involved and hospitals get squirrley over things nobody cares about anyway.
