Category Archives: Your Hospital Guide

“Your Hospital Guide” – Statistically Speaking

According to the CDC and the American Hospital Association websites, in registered hospitals in the United States there are 36 million inpatient admissions each year.  And 96 million outpatient hospital visits.  And 136 million emergency room visits (17 million of which become inpatient hospital admissions, included in that first statistic).  That’s a lot of people-hospital interaction.

When you have one of these up-close-and-personal encounters with our medical system, do you ever feel lost?  Out of your element?  Alone?  Confused?  Angry?  Overwhelmed?  Scared?  I have to tell you, even as a doctor, when I’ve been a patient or when I’ve been with a family member in hospital situations I’ve at various points in the experiences felt pretty much all of the above.

The advice in Your Hospital Guide is based on what I have seen and learned from my patients, on what has or has not worked well for them, on what they have done that I have found to be helpful to me as a physician, what I would have found helpful had they done it (and wished they had done), and what I have found to be helpful when I have had a family member who has been hospitalized.  The descriptions, explanations and information in this book cover topics about which I have been frequently questioned.  They are based on my experience working as a doctor in hospitals, on my experience having people close to me be hospitalized, and also on my own brief experiences of hospitalization.

I wrote Your Hospital Guide to be easy to read and understand.  Its purpose is to help you understand what is going on around you when you are hospitalized, who all the people are that are walking past your door and coming into your room, what you can expect, and what you can do to keep a sense of being as safe and in control as possible when you are in a situation where you might otherwise feel vulnerable and out of control.  This is not a book that quotes statistics on medical errors or that delves into detail about a particular disease or procedure; rather, it is a general handbook, an introduction to the world you will find yourself in, and a collection of advice that I would give my mother, my father, my sister, my brother, my uncle, my friend, or my neighbor, if they or their loved one were hospitalized.

 

Why “Your Hospital Guide” is Different

With the glaring exception of a select few of my child-rearing techniques, I do not like to scare people.  As a general rule, I derive great personal and professional satisfaction from helping people to feel comfortable, at ease, and in control, especially in situations where one’s health (or a loved one’s health) is concerned.  There are a few books out there that give advice for people who are hospitalized, and those books tell miscellaneous stories of people who have had very negative experiences.

I don’t know about you, but when I am embarking upon an unfamiliar course, one where there are risks, I don’t want to read about the horrible things that have happened to other people in my position.  I certainly want to know how to keep myself as safe as possible within given circumstances, and I want to familiarize myself with my surroundings, understand the culture, and understand some of the basic language of my environment, but I don’t want to be submerged in the details and drama of the worst possible outcomes of my situation, especially when I may not be able to control the fact that I am in that particular situation to begin with.  This is in no way to say that I want to put my head in the sand and ignore the fact that there is risk, but I want to face the risk in a positive way, actively participating in the optimization of the outcome of my particular situation.

Fear sells.  Tears sell.  But I intend for my book to guide readers the way I would like to be guided.  “Your Hospital Guide” is written to give you insider’s perspective and guidance in a place where you might otherwise feel lost or out of your element.  Blog entries in the “Your Hospital Guide” category will give you tastes of this book, with bits of information and direction that I hope you will find useful.  Please let me know through your comments what you think.  And here’s hoping that you will eventually read the whole book, and that you will only rarely, if ever, need it.

Why I wrote “Your Hospital Guide”

Hospitals are chaotic.  With the exception of childbirth and certain surgical procedures, in general you have to be fairly sick to be admitted to a hospital.  And surgical and obstetric patients, while not necessarily sick, are generally dealing with pain issues and need to be watched closely for potentially life-threatening complications.  Even in a small hospital, there are thousands of medications being ordered and administered daily, as well as thousands of other orders regarding tests and all aspects of patient care.  This means that the hospital staff members, in addition to most of the patients and their families, are frequently stressed.

In order for you to get the best possible care, you need to know what’s going on, and you need to communicate well with your doctors, nurses and other medical personnel.  You are the best advocate for your hospitalized self or family member.  This guide will help you stay organized and on task to ensure that your or your loved one’s care is optimal.  This optimization of care relates not only to care during a particular hospital stay, but also to any related follow-up care, and to any future medical situations.

This guide will help you stay in control.