Most often when columnists choose to trumpet about our health-care system, the resulting message sounds more like Taps (lights out), rather than Reveille or the Call To Arms. We often write columns because something has gone wrong. We lay critical fingers on a keyboard with anger rather than trying to make a positive contribution.
Unfortunately, most of us need to get annoyed before we get fired up. The following story certainly raised my ire, but in fact it evoked mixed feelings.
I found myself alternating between thoughts of rage and incompetence and feelings of satisfaction and pride in my community’s little hospital.
A couple of weeks ago an out-of-town visitor arrived at the apartment of a friend and neighbour. When she bent over to remove a boot, her hip slipped out of joint putting her in extreme pain and rendering her unable to move. Ordinarily, hips don’t go out of joint, but 14 years ago she had hip-replacement surgery. Things had gone well until three months ago when the hip popped out, and an ambulance rushed her to the big-city hospital where the original surgery took place. An orthopaedic surgeon easily corrected the problem.
Now in Fergus, it had happened again. A call to 9-1-1 brought two paramedics to the door in minutes. A series of phone calls indicated that Groves Memorial Community Hospital felt ill equipped to deal with the emergency. However, the big-city hospital, site of the original surgery, offered to look after her. They seemed willing because the surgeon who had reset it the last time was on call and would meet them when they arrived.
The ambulance turned away from Fergus to make the hour-long journey. When they arrived, and said they had a transfer patient from Groves in Fergus, the nurse said we don’t take transfer patients; she refused to listen to the paramedics and made no move to help them, or to find the doctor. The paramedics called other hospitals in the area, but found none that would take her. In desperation, they called Groves. The folks there explained that they had no one with experience at resetting displaced hips, but they agreed to accept the patient and find a way to deal with it. Now late in the evening, the ambulance turned back to Fergus through a wild snowstorm.
With the patient back at Groves, two local doctors, untrained in the treatment required, contacted an orthopaedic surgeon in Guelph who talked them through the procedure. In short order, they reset the hip giving the patient relief.
Now for the angry part: What has gone wrong with our medical system when big-city hospitals turn patients away because they find their arrival inconvenient? How can people dedicated to healing justify leaving a patient doubled up in pain for hours and then send her for another ambulance ride through a blinding snowstorm? How can they profess to have medical skills and not have basic people skills?
But it all has as happy side: The people at Groves Memorial Community Hospital have both the medical and people skills. The hospital personnel and doctors dare to step into the unknown and put patients’ concerns first. The caring spirit of smaller community hospitals will always trump the arrogance and unconcern of those in a major urban area.
I could suggest that big-city hospitals send representatives to Groves to study effective hospital management and patient care. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t work. The folks at Groves would be much too busy meeting the health needs of their neighbours and friends in Centre Wellington and area.