Seven Simple Suggestions for Hospitals to Make a Patient's Stay Safer and Easier

My father recently underwent gallbladder surgery and I was appalled at some of the things that happened at a highly recommended hospital in our area. After my father came home, we talked about some of the things that could have made for a much better stay.

1. Provide the patient with privacy.

Don't prep him for surgery in front of well-meaning friends. An already stressed out patient shouldn't have to hurt a friend's feelings by asking him or her to leave. One nurse asked my father if a visiting friend could come in to see him before the surgery. My father said it would be all right, but specifically asked that the visit be very short.

The friend was still there two hours later when the nurse poked her head in to ask my father if he wanted the visitor to leave now since he had requested that the visitor only be allowed in for a few minutes. My father was embarrassed by her tactless comment and said it was okay, so the visitor stayed on, and on, and on.

When you are sick, hurting, and facing major surgery, you are in no mood to think up tactful ways to handle your friends. It would have been so much easier if the nurse had told the visitor that 5 or 10 minutes was the limit to begin with.

2. After surgery, doctors should never discuss the outcome of the operation with the patient's wife or husband where others can overhear.

The patient's friends and bystanders who are waiting for other patients should never be included in the discussion. In my father's case, the doctor had my mother stand in the hallway outside the operating room as he described the incision, a problem they had had during the surgery, and the fact that another, follow-up, procedure would be necessary. There were 6 or 7 other people, including the friend from the pre-operation visit, privy to the conversation although it really was none of their business.

There was no excuse for this. Even a linen closet would have been a better solution.

3. Large groups of people should not be allowed to congregate in a patient's room.

This is especially important when the patient is in pain, still too groggy to talk, or has had nothing to eat or drink for several days.

My father's visitors weren't really able to visit with him since he was slipping in and out of consciousness the whole time they were there, but they often stayed for an hour or more, laughing and talking among themselves. Later, he didn't even remember their visits.

How much better it would have been to post a sign on the patient's door or remind them as they go in that only one or two people should go inside to visit at a time.

4. Why not limit visits to particular times of the day, and to 15 minutes, except for immediate family members.

Having people popping in and out of the patient's room at all hours of the day or night, and sticking around for hours, can be really stressful, and in some cases, detrimental to the patient's recovery.

If the patient starts feeling better and wants to visit, most hospitals provide phones beside the bed so he or she can call whomever he chooses and visit as long as he wishes.

5. Please keep patients clean.

This shouldn't even have to be said, but, in my father's case, after 4 days in the hospital, he said his face had been washed only one time, and his teeth brushed, not at all. It only takes a few minutes to wash a patient's face with warm soapy water, even if the rest of his body is too bruised and battered to survive a real bath.

Until he was well enough to tell us this, the family assumed such things were being taken care of by his nurses.

6. Make sure all members of the staff are informed concerning the patient's care.

If the patient isn't to use the bathroom alone, make sure the nurse or attendant on duty knows this. If the patient isn't allowed to have candy bars brought in from outside, everyone should know about it.

My mother was visiting my father when a young man came in with a dinner tray of food for my father. My mother pointed to a huge chart on the wall that said nothing by mouth until the patient is seen by his gastroenterologist. The food server said, "Oh. Well maybe you would like to eat it. instead"

I wonder what would have happened if my mother hadn't been in the room. My father, still disoriented from his second surgery in two days might have eaten at least some of the food and destroyed all the work the doctors had done, or, worse yet, suffered serious other consequences.

7. Finally, let the patient know what is going on whenever possible.

Most older people, in spite of popular belief to the contrary, aren't senile. If the doctor isn't coming by until evening, don't say, "Oh he should be here any minute." That can really cause frustration when expectations aren't met. If he asks what went wrong causing him to need a second procedure, the doctor needs to tell him. Spending hours in a hospital bed without legitimate answers can lead to some pretty vivid imagining.

There you have it; my suggestions for a few things that could go a long way in improving the service at any hospital. And, the best thing about them is, that hardly any of them would cost the hospital a single cent.

We all know that one of the first things a patient faces after returning home from a hospital stay is a staggering bill for hospital services. The least he should be able to expect, whether he or an insurance company actually pays the bill, is reasonable service. Don't you agree?