Observations at a Hospital/Doctor’s Office (Part One)

You know what I’ll never understand?

Why patients with heart related symptoms are made to wait an hour (plus) in the waiting room in the emergency room.
Why patients on a “cardiac diet” are fed cheese sandwiches, lasagna, and other such things in hospitals.
Why a cardiologists’ office serves pizza (ESPECIALLY after a stress test).
Why the nurses and technicians in hospitals wake the patients up every 2-4 hours to take their blood pressure, etc.

I’ll expand further on each of the above statements, but don’t you find each of them absolutely ridiculous and hypocritical?

Statement One: Why patients with heart related symptoms are made to wait an hour (plus) in the waiting room in the emergency room.

This past Tuesday my dad went to the emergency room because he felt tightness in his chest (he had a heart attack in 2005 so of course it was a concern for all of us). We sat in the waiting room for atleast an hour and a half (probably even more) before we were finally taken back into the emergency room. Another 30+ minutes later, he was finally seen by a doctor.

A chest x-ray, blood test, and 2 EKG’s later to see if it was indeed heart related we were told that the tests would need to be done several times (one at about each eight hour interval) because just one or two times would be inconclusive. If that’s the case, it brings me back to my original question of WHY they take so long in the first place.

I would assume, and rightfully so I think, that if the symptoms indicate that the problem is heart related, immediate action would be taken. I had always assumed that the emergency room was ordered based on the urgency of the situations, but apparently not based on what I saw.

Not surprisingly, my dad was hospitalized — for two days.

This wasn’t the first time, unfortunately, we had to to wait way too long for something that could have potentially been serious (but thankfully was not) — it happened to my mom in 2008 as well.

Statement Two: Why patients on a “cardiac diet” are fed cheese sandwiches, lasagna, and other such things in hospitals.

I’ve noticed this happen before as well, but at the same as I talk about above — I went to ask the nurse if my dad could have something to eat since he hadn’t had anything to eat for several hours (he had came straight from work to the hospital). The nurse told me he would ask my dad’s doctor and let me know. Can you imagine how surprised I was when the technician came back sometime later and told us that my dad was being put on a cardiac diet for now and asked if a cheese sandwich would be okay when we told him he could eat halal food (kosher-like) or vegetarian.

What part of a sandwich with two cheese slices fits into a cardiac diet? How does that even make sense?

The next day he had vegetarian lasagna (again with lots of cheese) for lunch. Oh, and with each meal came a roll with BUTTER. I can’t recall exactly what else he ate during his hospital stay, but a lot of them sure were questionable. When did a cardiac diet come to mean that only the salt quantity needs to be controlled?

Part Two to come soon. Update: You can read Part Two by clicking here.

P.S. Don’t forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I’d love to hear from you.