Another Old Guy
“Ouch!” I yelped as the lab
technician pulled the electrodes off my hairy chest without warning.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to pull those off?” I
asked incredulously.
“You would’ve flinched anyway,” She smirked.
No problem! Switching hospitals is as
easy as pulling off electrodes, and I did.
Customer satisfaction is measured in
different ways, and it is seen differently from different points of
view. I was scheduled for minor surgery and had to undergo an EKG as
a standard part of the preparation for the operation. The hospital
in question had a fairly good reputation from past patients I had
talked to, but I didn’t get that warm, fuzzy feeling while filling
out paper work among boxes strewn along the corridors and overflowing
waste cans. Finally, the single action of a lab technician who was
apparently aggravated because she wanted to go to lunch but had
another old guy to test before she could eat set another warning
flag.
Several weeks passed, then the final
flag went up. My suspicions were confirmed when the hospital called
me asking where I was on the scheduled day of the operation. My
operation had been cancelled by my surgeon and his office because of
an aberration on the EKG. I needed clearance from a cardiologist
before anybody would fix any part of my aging, but hairy, body. I
needed a stress test and further consultation before my surgeon would
undertake the operation, and had put the whole procedure on hold
until I was deemed healthy enough for surgery.
I answered the phone innocently enough
with my standard, “Hello.”
“Where are you?” the female voice
on the other end the phone asked.
“I’m here, obviously! Who are you
and why do you want to know,” I countered.
“This is the operating room and we
want to know why you aren’t here!”
“Because you cancelled the
operation!” I answered suspiciously. “Who are you again?”
“Uunnh, Can you hang on a minute…”
The hospital in question followed up
with a satisfaction telephone call. I was as honest as I could be
while trying to describe the effect of being uncomfortable with what
I had seen and felt, rather than actually pushing hard facts and
numbers. Attitudes are hard to measure. They can be fleeting as a
headache, but as damaging as a personal insult.
I have been assured the procedure that
allowed the scheduling oversight has been corrected, and I’m sure
interoffice communications has been elevated to a new level to
prevent further gaps in scheduling. It was an unfortunate ending to
a decision I made based on a lab tech just being rude. Somehow,
however, I felt I made the right decision to go elsewhere.
Customer satisfaction is the hard part
of the bargain, even for us old guys.
George Mindling
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