How many families of the survivors were greeting by someone as they arrived at the hospital? My wife and I are both survivors of separate severe car crashes. In both cases, there was nobody waiting in lobby for the family memeber. Having someone there would be a great help in navagating to the trauma center or the ICU or whereever the loved one is.
I think this is a really good point. Hospitals deal so much with the physical — healing and saving bodies — that I would guess that sometimes the emotional aspects people go through during their hospital adventures can be overlooked.
It certainly would be nice to be greeted at the lobby. I can only imagine what my friends and family thought when they received that phone call in the middle of the night when I crashed. Not knowing is a killer.
When you start thinking about how to facilitate this, it starts to become clear as to why this doesn’t happen. Who is going to greet you? I guess the greeter would hold a sign with your name on it? How many greeters should be on staff? How many greeters should be on any given shift? Is the greeter there just to take you to your loved one, or should they be able to provide answers while taking you to the injured? That could be a legal nightmare. The questions are endless here.
well my accident was march 1st 2008. i was electrocuted 7200 volts. i was taken to owensboro hospital and was awake. my wife rode in the ambulance but getting to owensboro my injuries were worst than i thought so i was airlifted to nashville tn vanderbilt hospital to the burn unit. i was awake the entire trip and going into the hospital i was greeted my several nurse and dr. jeffery guy. my stay was excellent. i have a great vanderbilt family. my family was taken to where i was, they got to see me before surgery, they were greeted by the burn nurses and dr. guy before my surgery. dr. guy was called in from home and stayed with me from getting there until way in the early mornings. every move he made he explained before, during, and after my surgery. both hands were amputated and i was in the hospital for 12 days. i saw dr guy everyday. he didn’t treat me like a patient he treated me like i was a part of his family. since my accident dr. guy and the burn unit staff have been very good to me and my family. i talk to most of them weekly. dr. guy has been to my house, we have been to races together, ect. vanderbilt and the burn unit have been the best in every way possible. i think if every hospital could do what they did for us they would have suvivors return just to say hi, get hugs and tell them thank you for doing what you did
My fiance was airlifted several hospitals away to a level 1 trauma center after being in a severe motorcycle accident at work. Being that I wasn’t technically family I told the police officer on the scene of the accident that he needed to call the hospital and tell them that I was coming.
I couldn’t go in the helicopter because of space so I drove the thirty five miles to the hospital. It was hard to know where to park to meet a chopper. I finally pulled up to a gated ER parking lot for help and they allowed me to park there and directed me to the door I needed. When I got through the door there was a security officer waiting for me. He asked if I was there for the helicopter and I told him yes. He escorted me through the ER and back to a separate waiting area for Trauma families.
A woman there looked up the information to match me and my love. After only a few minuted I was updated with his landing condition and how he was doing in the room before they took me to him. I was allowed in the Trauma room with all the doctors the entire time, I could go with him to all his tests (x-rays, ect) and slept in his room the entire hospital stay. I think other than the poor parking lot and confusion of where to go our hospital staff was very accommodating.
