Neary-Sighted

Update from April 30: We're now a couple days away from surgery. While I don't want to take away anything I said below - there are some very nice people who work at St. Joe's - I am mighty interested now in what you think of the women's health program there. If you have had experiences with the women's health program at St. Joseph Medical Clinic that you would like to share, please click here. All responses will be kept private; I'm mostly just looking for trends.

As some of you may know, a family member had non-emergency surgery Thursday. For years, I've seen St. Joe's on the hill, and wondered about what it looks like inside the portholes (if you are familiar with the windows of the building, you know what I mean)

We're back at home, and all seems well for now. The one takeaway lesson from St. Joseph Medical Center is that the usual rules for hospitals apply: you want to make sure you have someone else there beside the patient to remind staff of the patient's wants and needs. But the food is great, which was astonishing; and the staff members were always smiling and introducing themselves, which is even more astonishing. I never actually saw a grumpy hospital staff member. That's a great accomplishment in this day and age of managed medicine.

I'm not intending a knock at UW Medical Center, where I used to work. There are amazing people there too. If I was struck with something in Seattle or had a doctor there, UW Medical Center is the first place I would go. But because I worked at a hospital, I know firsthand what a challenge it is to continually communicate the importance of patient-oriented care to a stressed staff. They seem to succeed with such messages at St. Joe's, and that's impressive. I met some super-nice people there, and am grateful for each one of them.
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