I had the opportunity to go to the hospital and learn a bit about how PLC receives patients and determines whether or not they can help the child. The original plan was to meet the prospective PLC patient at 8:30 a.m. during her appointment with a local cardiologist, but plans changed, as they arrived a couple of hours later.
As we waited for the child and the family, the cardiologist
kept doing his rounds and checking back with us to see if the family arrived. I
was glad he was making an effort to fit this appointment into his
already-crammed schedule, but I could tell he was afraid they were not going to
show. We kept looking out for them, spending quite a bit of time in the
hospital hallway.
The hospital scene is
a bit difficult to describe because there was so much going on, but I’ll do my
best. I saw a few little kids running, several children walking around holding
an IV in their hand, a baby screaming and being held down by a few nurses, a
crowded patient room with about six moms and their children, people frequently
walking through the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), and so much more. I also
noticed women wearing green coverings or white jackets. I learned that they
were wearing such garments for identification purposes. The women wearing white
jackets—jackets that you would normally see doctors wearing—are nurses. And the
women wearing green gowns over their regular clothes are the moms of the
children. Doctors are free to wear whatever they want, which made it hard to
identify them sometimes.
There was a lot of movement in the
hallway, so we stood out of the way, near the stairway in the corner. I
spent the whole time observing and talking to a PLC worker who shared a bit of
her hospital experience with me. I found it all fascinating, and wanted to
learn as much as possible, but the cardiologist found us and invited us to his
echo room, where we would continue to wait for the patient.
The echo room was also an interesting experience. In order
to get to the echo room, you have to walk through the PICU. I didn’t have to
wear or do anything special to enter the PICU
or the echo room. In fact, for the last 30 minutes or so while I was waiting in
the hallway, I had noticed others doing the same: just walking on through. Some
people walking through the PICU continued their conversations at a loud volume,
and others looked out of place. In my eyes, security seemed a little loose, but
to those who are there everyday, they probably see security differently than I
do.
When I entered the Echo room,
I stood to the side to let people exit/enter. This could be a busy room for
many reasons, but one reason is because every baby gets their heart screened
now. Another reason that it seemed so busy is because of its size. This was a
very small room, and there was not much space to move around. There was a
customizable, dividing wall in the middle of the room to create a bit of
patient privacy, but in such a small room, it’s hard for there to be any
privacy. There were two families in there when we arrived, and at one point, I
counted more than 11 people in this room (not including myself).
In addition to the people frequently walking in and out of
the room, the room had a patient table, an echo machine, a rolling stool for
the doctor, a desk for the doctor, two comfy couch chairs and a bigger loveseat
on the other side of the room for people waiting, extra plastic chairs stacked
up, a few piles of papers, a small desk for the nurse and a phone. The nurse
handles all the calls, appointment setting and more in this room, while the
doctors tend to patients, and she also assists the doctor with the patient be
keeping them smiling, moving their hands out of the way or doing anything else
that assists the doctors work.
There was a lot to think about after seeing this all in
action, but it made me hopeful that the cardiac
center being built across the street would soon be completed. This would
allow for more space, and other opportunities of care for the patients and doctors.
However, the project has been underway for the last three years. I really hope someone finishes it soon.
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