Thu Jelden

Review of Tri-City Medical Center

Two and half stars. If you approach healthcare wit...

Two and half stars. If you approach healthcare with the knowledge of its limitations, then you can empathize with healthcare professionals. It seems that rarely does a diagnosis find a definitive answer to why something hurts or why you are feeling the way you do. With blood, urine, and imaging equipment, healthcare professionals have indicators of the most likely diagnosis, and therefore, a treatment plan. Often times, the diagnosis is a bit of disappointment because neither is it definite or conclusive. It is a best guess. Again, if a patient approaches healthcare with this perspective, then it will save them the disappointment that is felt after long hours of waiting, probing, and testing. This being said, there still is no reason for the long wait. Are there not enough doctors and nurses and radiologists for the patient demand? Also, there is no reason for the high cost and seemingly unnecessary testing. As a patient, you don t know what you need and you are trusting the healthcare provider to be your guide and advocate, but it feels like tests, procedures, and treatments are given with this pressure of (1) your ignorance of medicine and (2) their need to be thorough and extensive so as not to get sued. Patients end up with thousands of dollars in medical bills and distrust for the medical system in general. The charge nurse said to me that the level of care in the ER is higher than at your family doctor; yet the feeling is quite the opposite. I ended up in the ER two days in a row on the advice of my family doctor, once for me, once for my daughter and both times, it felt wrong, unnecessary. Why can t family doctors be as equipped as ER doctors? I read the other reviews of long waits and in the end, just being prescribed antibiotics. That was our case, too, but with the expectation and attitude that I mentioned in the beginning, the frustration felt by these patients and us is somewhat mediated. Yet, six hours is a long time to wait to not get a definitive answer and a prescription for antibiotics, which was our case. It is also dehumanizing, devaluing our time. Our need to know the cause was the real problem, the answer rarely reached by healthcare professionals. As long as the condition isn t life-threatening and the pain can be managed, that is the extent of healthcare for most people and should be their expectation as well, as disappointing as that is.