Nope (though yes, those two clinics needed additional waiting area as well) - I was referring to how the back lobby is used as the waiting area for pickups/dropoffs and how insufficient that space is. I can't imagine how the busy/noisy/crowded space works for someone who just got pumped full of chemo waiting for their ride. It's stressful as hell - heck even going there as a caregiver stresses me out - I always end up exhausted after going to PMH.
AoD
As someone who spent time in PMH while caring for others, I have every sympathy for the challenges that entails, mostly outside the hospital, but in it as well.
While I agree that the back-area was poorly laid out, and as it stands there are challenges w/the blood clinic.......
This is one of many cases where I get upset when I hear/see how things are done, and realize how much better they could be done.
Two examples pertaining to this institution.
When I was with someone who was transported from another hospital to the blood clinic, he was moved in the early afternoon.
The clinic was almost a ghost town......he was one of 2 patients, both in beds, no one waiting, 4 staff.
I very politely asked why there were over 50 chairs and several beds if traffic was like this.
I was told by staff.....oh the mornings are insane and lined up down the hall.
Yet a fully-staff facility apparently sits close to empty from 1-4pm daily.
No routine weekend hours.
Very poor use of space, staff and money.
The staff agreed and outlined their unflattering thoughts about hospital management.
****
Second area of concern, that patient who was transported, had to experience it 5 days in a row, for radiation treatment not offered at the hospital where he was based.
Each round trip by ambulance was very rough, the patient was immobile and in pain.
Those trips cost almost $600.00 each to the system.
I asked why he wasn't simply transferred to PMH as an in-patient for the 5 day period, as this would have been easier on him, and saved the system $2,400 in transportation costs.
The answer I got amounted to 'that's the way we do it'.
The staff recognized it made no sense.
The original logic was to save money and improve expertise by having consolidated radiation services; and the notion was that it was cheaper to move a patient once or twice, round-trip than spend the clerical and nursing time on admitting.
But they agreed it made no sense if a the patient was making several days worth of trips.
It's a shame to see stuff like this happen because it also accounts for problems that appear to be in the layout of PMH, yet a chunk of those issues might be resolved by changes not in design, but in procedure.
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