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I had kind of an inverse experience in the sense of an organization who should have tried to reach me and didn't bother in being persistent when they should hav

I had kind of an inverse experience in the sense of an organization who should have tried to reach me and didn't bother in being persistent when they should have. My elderly father is in a care facility, and I am POA (Power Of Attorney to make decisions for him), and well-documented point of contact for him with his doctor and the hospital. He fell and broke his hip at the care facility on Jan 2. around midnight. He got transferred to the local hospital as a result. First, the care facility failed to call me at all. This was discussed with them after the fact and they know they screwed up and admitted it. That's kind of an issue but not the biggest one. Then the hospital tried calling me at 6 AM (6 hours later). The number was the general "call out" number not a particular office or doctor. They left no message. My father had been in the hospital for another issue just the week before, so I didn't bother following up figuring it was just some early morning administrative thing related to the previous visit. Then the hospital called my mother at noon (12 hours after the admission) asking her some question about his hip surgery to be planned. She has no idea what it's about. She asks me and I have no idea what it's about. I call the hospital and find out he's been there for 12 hours. What the actual hell... They claimed they couldn't leave a message due to privacy issues. But they could have said, "This is Dr. X calling about your father - please call me back." Or tried calling me repeatedly until I did pick up (like SAR tried in this story). In the end there weren't any specific issues where I as POA had to make some decision for him, nor was he on the verge of death and the family needing to be notified. It could have been a lot worse. But still, it was really, really dropping the ball when it came to attempting to connect with someone who really should be connected with.

rjsw 3y ago
In the UK, hospitals hide their number when they call you so you have no idea who it is.
- InCityDreams 3y ago
  Try answering? Hello, who's that? The hospital Thanks, just the punchline I needed
saltcured 3y ago
I've had similar experiences, learning many hours later that an elderly relative had taken a field trip to the ER, or in a few cases even had round-trip transport back to the care home before I knew what was going on. But I've also had the absurd opposite, where I think the hospital IT system must be triggering some workflow events and it causes a thundering herd problem. One example: Visiting my in-patient relative, I was called into a hallway by a nurse, as the doctor would be coming to discuss something. Before we could even start, I got an incoming call from the same hospital system which turned out to be a care coordinator trying to discuss the same patient. While I was trying to triage that call and not waste the doctor's time too much, I heard the call waiting beep. That turned out to be an affiliated social worker spawned onto the same case. I let her go to voicemail. Within 5 minutes, I got another call from a durable equipment vendor who was processing an order just put in for the patient. This became a repeating pattern. Along with all the other stress of handling my family member's illness, this pushed me too far. For the first time in my life, I started to flinch or startle at incoming calls and notifications. It got worse with frequent and randomized calls from the relative, who suffers from dementia. I started to form a new understanding of the stories I'd heard of younger generations having phone-based anxieties.

rjsw 3y ago

In the UK, hospitals hide their number when they call you so you have no idea who it is.

InCityDreams 3y ago
Try answering? Hello, who's that? The hospital Thanks, just the punchline I needed

saltcured 3y ago

I've had similar experiences, learning many hours later that an elderly relative had taken a field trip to the ER, or in a few cases even had round-trip transport back to the care home before I knew what was going on. But I've also had the absurd opposite, where I think the hospital IT system must be triggering some workflow events and it causes a thundering herd problem. One example: Visiting my in-patient relative, I was called into a hallway by a nurse, as the doctor would be coming to discuss something. Before we could even start, I got an incoming call from the same hospital system which turned out to be a care coordinator trying to discuss the same patient. While I was trying to triage that call and not waste the doctor's time too much, I heard the call waiting beep. That turned out to be an affiliated social worker spawned onto the same case. I let her go to voicemail. Within 5 minutes, I got another call from a durable equipment vendor who was processing an order just put in for the patient. This became a repeating pattern. Along with all the other stress of handling my family member's illness, this pushed me too far. For the first time in my life, I started to flinch or startle at incoming calls and notifications. It got worse with frequent and randomized calls from the relative, who suffers from dementia. I started to form a new understanding of the stories I'd heard of younger generations having phone-based anxieties.