Emergency Room visits are like working at a dot bomb.
[ Posted by Dan on November 04, 2002 | 1 Comments ]

I have recently had cause to see lots of doctors and go to the emergency room, and I have to say that the entire system is a Process and User Experience disaster (and very much similar to an e-biz consulting company). Consider the following pattern...

1. I develop pains for some unknown reason, and it doesn't go away for a long time, so I drive myself to the emergency room.
2. Upon arriving I have to sign myself in, assuming of course that I can control my hands enough. The waiting begins, in a hospital that doesn't see high traffic, especially at this early hour of 5am.
3. The on-duty orderly type guy then calls me in after a while that and does the discovery session and gathers the requirements to solve my problem. He takes notes using a computer interface with lots of pop-up selections, causing massive amounts of clicking.
4. Next, I go back and wait, and then check in, again, with someone else who wants to know how I'm going to pay for this. Due to my condition, I don't care, but hand over my insurance card with a shaky hand. This person asks me the same questions as the other guy and enters them into a terminal looking application. this leads me to believe that my ailment demographics are being taken.
5. I wait again for the next round
6. I'm eventually invited into the back where all the good equipment, doctors and most importantly (for me at the time) where the drugs are. But, before I can some relief, I am interrogated again, but no one takes notes or enters this repeated info into a computer. This leads me to believe they know my ailment data has been recorded at least once and they can refer back to that if they need to, but reading that in the first place must take to long so they as me directly as I writhe around on a gurney.
7. Due to the symptoms, they decide to hook me up to an IV and pump all sorts of crap into me, and I attempt to be a good customer, er patient, by asking about everything they are doing.
8. I understand little to none of the info passed to me in spite of my St Elsewhere, er, and Dr. Quinn Medicine woman medical education.
10. The pain killers kick in, and I don't give a fuck about anything anymore.
11. More questions and answers, and lots of waiting. But who cares about waiting when you are in a stupor and have no sense of time passing.
12. Blood tests come back with some good news, but I only know what isn't wrong with me, not what is.
13. I know a bill will arrive in the mail soon.

This whole thing really feels like deliverables time on a dot bomb, death march project in 1999. You know, the urgent feelings that something is happening, but you are not sure what, and you try to do something about it, and the process is taking too long, but you get something done, and it feels great, but you still know nothing, and you know a bill is going to come in the mail, and you are hoping to god that your backers are going to make good on their commitments.

 

		Not exactly on the topic you are discussing, but I'm bored... My dad one time cut his hand really bad with a wood chisel on an island. He swims, one-handed (he was a lifeguard prior to this) the 1/2 mile or so to land, drives 25 minutes in the truck to the hospital, and goes to emergency room. The nurse goes "oh you cut your hand, please fill out this form and the doctor will see you soon". My father says "I don't think you understand how bad this is, I need to see someone right now". "Sorry, you'll have to fill out this form and then we can try to find a doctor". "I'll fill out the form later and you'll get me a doctor now". At this point he unwraps his hand on the counter and a large pool of blood quickly forms on the counter and starts dripping on the desk. Seconds later the staff descends on him and he gets treated. 86 stiches later (yes, all in his hand), he fills out the form (with his non-writing hand). Not a very good experience. -Posted by Eric on November 7, 2002 11:50 AM

Comment posting has been turned off because I don't have enough time and will to deal with the constant comment spamming. I'm very sorry and will fix this sometime soon (soon = before 2004 ends).