Hospital Hospitality or Hostility?

Last week I had a motorcycle accident which forced me to go to the emergency room of a small health center in a small district in Ponorogo. There were three staff taking care of me, cleaning my wounds. My husband, who was also injured, was also taken care of. Because my right eye was bleeding, one of the staff told me that I needed to go to a bigger health center for a better intensive care. She said that the facility to check my eye condition was not available in that small health center.

After some minutes of taking a rest in that emergency room, my husband and I decided to continue our trip to go home by our motorcycle, which was still fine to ride after the accident. Before we left that small health center, those three staff were politely asking us not to say to the staff of the bigger health center that we had visited that small health center. Otherwise, I would be rejected to enter the bigger emergency room. I was asked to say that a nurse in a village had taken care of me.

When we arrived at a bigger health center in my town, my husband sent me to the emergency room while he dealt with the paperwork of my entrance. I laid myself down on one bed in that room. There were more than 10 patients waiting to be treated. I saw two nurses standing near some beds. I thought they were taking care of the patients on the beds near them. So I waited patiently for my turn to be treated.

What really shocked and annoyed me was the attitude of the other staff who were not taking care of the patients and who were sitting and chatting in the reception area. They were talking and laughing and complaining so loud; talking about the food they ordered that had not arrived yet, laughing at some random things, complaining about coming to work on holidays.

I was wondering while listening to all of those: Are all big emergency rooms crowded and noisy like this? How do the patients waiting in line to be treated feel when listening to those noises? How come those noisy staff don't realize that their noise really disturbs?

So, I sat on my bed. I wanted to see those noisy faces. A few seconds later, a delivery guy came in. He brought the ordered food to the reception area. After it was paid, all the staff came to that area to enjoy the food, including the staff who was taking care of a patient.

I saw that and I was sad. They were having a party in front of me and other sick patients. They seemed to show no sympathy and empathy.

But I was calming down myself. I just thought that they were very hungry because they had taken care of many patients on that day. I thought that way to ease the pain of my wounds.

When finally a nurse took care of me, she easily said that my wounds were not serious. I didn't need to be hospitalized.

I thanked God because I didn't have to deal with those uncaring staff any longer. I thanked God because I got this accident so I could know the quality of the service from that big health center. Totally different from that small health center in a small district.