Last evening I had an experience at Greenwich Hospital that made me realize I don’t want ANY Government interference in the service provided by the wonderful, caring people who work at Greenwich Hospital.
My 15 year old son very suddenly experienced an earache that was excruciatingly painful. After unsuccessfully trying to reach our ENT doctor after 6 o’clock in the evening, I decided to take him to the Emergency Room (ER) at the hospital.
Every single person who assisted us in the ER was compassionate and remarkably professional – from the gentlemen who parked our car to the cheerful receptionist who took our information at the desk, to the nurse who took my son’s blood pressure, to the wonderfully humorous young man who paraded around with his portable computer getting all our details, to the PA (physician assistant) who was so gentle and knowledgeable and who diagnosed my son’s pain as an ear infection from surfing in the ocean, and then so reassured him that all would be well once he took the prescription she ordered.
And then the most wonderful and kind lady checked us out, as though we were the most important guests at a glamorous spa. She made us feel special. Outside, the attendants made light of the fact that I could not find my parking voucher – they simply figured out what car was mine. Believe it or not, we were in and out of the ER within an hour.
After we got home, at around 11 o’clock, our ENT doctor called to find out how my son was doing. I told him of our wonderful experience and the medication prescribed, and he totally agreed with the treatment plan.
As if that were not enough to make us grateful forever, today around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, I received a follow up call from a nurse in the Emergency Room who was checking up on my son’s wellbeing. I was so blown away by the consideration and thoughtfulness of all the staff at Greenwich Hospital Emergency Room.
What I have learned from this experience is that there is a team of dedicated professionals, whose names and faces are anonymous, but who care about each and every patient who comes in for treatment. They are what makes Greenwich Hospital (and hospitals all over this country) so very special. They may not get the public recognition, but they are the lifeblood of our healthcare system.
I thank each and every one of the staff at the Emergency Room at Greenwich Hospital for your caring and your professionalism. You are exeptionally wonderful people.
Glad to hear your son received great care at Greenwich Hospital. But I’m not sure I understand why you think that would change if the government got more involved in health care.
The care your son received was exemplary because that’s the way Greenwich Hospital is run. Any government involvement in our currently catastrophic health care system would not affect the way people at Greenwich Hospital do their job.
How much? How much were you charged? Not just how much did you have to pay out of pocket, but how much was the total bill?
And just curious, but aren’t Medicare patients also seen at that same hospital? Don’t they receive the same courteous treatment? If so, if the hospital gives prompt and courteous treatment to patients on government health insurance just as they do patients on private health insurance, what is the problem?
In this health care reform, no one is talking about taking over Greenwich Hospital, but simply reforming health insurance. Given that nearly two-thirds of all people filing personal bankruptcies in this country are forced to because of overwhelming health care-related expenses and debt, wouldn’t it make sense to eliminate that enormous waste that is the overhead going to the mainly unproductive middle man- the for-profit insurance companies? Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to pass through, oh say 98 cents of every health care dollar to doctors and hospitals and producers of medical devices, as Medicare does now, rather than having the non-productive private health insurance companies retain 31 cents of every dollar of insurance premiums that they handle as they do now?
So what was the bill for your son’s earache treatment at Greenwich Hospital? I’m curious.
Very nice postive article. Hope your son makes a swift, complete recovery.