Jose Huerta

Review of Mercy St. Vincent Medical Cent...

Recently, my wife had surgery at St. Vincent s, Me...

Recently, my wife had surgery at St. Vincent s, Mercy, in Toledo. The morning of the surgery, my wife and I pulled-up to the valet parking at St. Vincent s, walked into emergency, and checked-in. We then went to the surgical waiting area. It was a modern space with hot coffee and water dispensers. There was plenty of seating; tables, chairs and recliners. There were outlets everywhere. A receptionist double-checked our paperwork and gave us instructions for receiving updates. For privacy, patients names are not used to identify them. Numbers are used instead. My wife was 40. If a nurse wanted to update me of her status, she called-out patient number 40, or, family for 40, in the waiting room. I signal the nurse, she comes over and speaks with me or meets me in the hallway and gives me an update. It was great.

Nurses and doctors were constantly in the waiting rooms updating family. I didn t see anyone needing to approach the desk for information. Everything seemed to run very smoothly. There were even phones in the waiting rooms. Staff could place a call and ask if family for 18, was in the room, for instance.

My wife was also assigned a 6-digit tracking code. There s a screen on the wall in the waiting room. It lists each patient s tracking code in a box. The boxes are color coded according to the patient s location throughout the hospital. With this, families can track the patient s progress through the surgical process. All of this information is contained on a card I was given to keep. I know: it sounds like I m doing a commercial for this place. I assure you, I m not. I hate hospitals and I hate waiting, so I appreciate little stuff like this!

Other things I noticed were that the staff at the cafeteria was friendly. The food was good. The coffee was good. Items in the waiting room vending machines were fairly priced about a dollar. There was a small, pretty gift shop, decorated for Christmas, on the main floor. To my amazement, the items seemed very affordable. For instance, there were flowers available for $15. I moved to this area recently, from Detroit. I m used to inadequate shops stuffed with periodicals and cheap souvenirs for airport prices. This was a nice change.

Most of the health care professionals we encountered were women the pre-op attendants, the anesthesiologist, post-op, the nurses. In pre-op, the two surgeons walked into my wife s staging area. They were all smiles and they were women as well. The reason I mention this is because my wife s procedure was one that is exclusive to women. Each of her caregivers was encouraging, friendly, professional, reassuring, thoughtful, funny, kind, and more. They comforted her. Watching these caregivers take care of one of their own like that made me feel so intensely grateful. It s something I can t put into words, but I was so thankful for such a professional, patient staff. I can t say enough about them.

The surgery went well and so did our experience. Thank you, St. V s.

JHuerta