Customer satisfaction

I went for a medical appointment at the new District hospital this morning . This would be the third time I am at the hospital , so I went  mentally prepared  , knowing well ahead that   my patience would be tested again .  I kept a note of all the timings .

10.00 am	left my ID with registration staff .
10.50 am	got my outpatient number . Time stated on the number slip – 10:26 am [Note: a few agitated outpatients were  grumbling about the snail service  and the inefficiency of the front desk staff
11:30 am	Out of Room 13 . This is where a hospital attendant  took my BP and asked me  the purpose  of the visit .
11:45 am	out of Room 15 . The doctor on duty reported to me about the outcome of the sputum test . She also referred me to the respiratory specialist clinic .
12:00 noon	finished the final 2 tasks . ·         Got my prescription from the pharmacy ( very fast) ·         Schedule an appointment with the specialist clinic ( no hassle)

So , what can one say about  the efficiency of this new hospital service  when one has to wait close to an hour to get registered ?  I must also add that the staff on duty showed no urgency at all !  Another patient next to me imitated exasperatingly how the registration staff  was keying in data with 1 finger only . No wonder it took that long !  It mocks us , as a nation , to have   5-star infrastructure  only to fill it up with incompetent staff ! 

 There is only one criterion for  any service industry  - customer satisfaction .  The hospital is a very good example of a service institution that should render quick service to its patient-customers. Generally, the longer the patient stays in the hospital the more ineffective and inefficient it is. As patients, we all want the hospital to let us out as fast as possible – of course well and alive.

Retirement

Retirement , to many , represents  the payoff of a long career and a time they can finally set aside work and enjoy life , doing the things they have always wanted to do but have missed out for whatever reasons or simply spending more time with  loved ones and friends . But what is the right retirement age ?  

 When I first entered the civil service way back in the 1970’s , the retirement age was set at 55 . This was then revised to 56 and then 58 a few years later . Last year , the  retirement age  was raised to 60 . 

To management guru Peter Drucker , retirement is an industrial age thinking. It makes sense for the blue-collar worker  who would have difficulty handling physically demanding tasks  as  age catches up.  But for the “ knowledge workers”, they can and should continue to stay productive till as late as it is possible.  They should be given an option of putting off  retirement for as long as they can .Their stay in the workforce  will be worthy as these workers  have accumalated vast experience and their contribution would be invaluable.

Medical examination

I visited the local district hospital shortly after lunch yesterday ( 14 Nov 2012)  with the  hope that the GP can refer me to a specialist regarding my  hypertension  and also the nagging phlegm problem I had been having  since Nov 2011 .

The GP on duty ordered  a chest X-Ray for my second complaint . Looking at the X-Ray  film , he asked me if I  am a smoker ( even if it is only passive ) , whether I had fever or cough recently …..  . With his not so fluent English , he explained to me that the white spots on the X-Ray film  could be due to infection, cancer and something else he said but I cant recall now .  Anyway , I have to bring samples of  saliva / phlegm  to the pathology department for 3 days consecutively . I started the first one this morning .

It makes me wonder if the hospital  have a different standard where BP reading is concerned . My BP reading taken at the hospital was 146/88 , and  I was made to answer a few questions while the reading was taken !   The attending doc commented that I should stop taking medication for a week , he thinks that I don’t need any BP  medicine at all with this kind of reading . I really cant  believe what he said , this was the reading with medication , can one imagine if I am without the medication ?  Anyway , I told the doctor that I would like to go on medication for a while till an appointment with the specialist is made .

I pray that the results from the culture will be favorable !

Guilt

I'm guilty.

Guilty of not being able to keep up with reading my magazines and the daily newspaper . I leave the living room and the dinning table utterly disorganized   most of the time ! I am behind time doing the ironing  , my closets have not been rearranged the whole year already ! 


"I'm pretty organized -- or I used to be. 
I feel like that part of my brain has atrophied."