The hospital Business- a personal experience Part 1
Hey guys, I’ve not posted anything for a while now because of an unfortunate road accident which led to a hip fracture and a Hip Fix Surgery
Here’s my account of my Hospital experience.
Well, there are 2 different scenarios with 2 different experiences. Both leading to my personal conclusion that hospitals are run more by MBA’s rather than doctors.
FYI. This is only my personal view from my experience of the 2 incidents.
Let me start with when my father was admitted to the hospital a little over 4 months ago. My father is 84 years old and was feeling very weak. He had somehow started eating very little as he didn’t feel hungry.
Since he was feeling very weak, we rushed him to the hospital.
The doctor’s admitted him immediately. They ran a lot of tests on him.
Nothing showed up in the tests. Dad was given the saline drips a couple of times a day. Since nothing was diagnosed, no medication was started.
The doctors said they want to do some advanced tests to rule out any problems. Which means dad would stay hospitalized. We siblings were more than willing to get all tests done so that any issue, if existing, can be diagnosed and taken care of.
Day 2…tests… All seems ok.
Day 3…. Same
Day 4….Same
No problem detected and no medication had begun except for the saline drips a couple of times a day.
By now we were thinking is there really was any issue?
We asked the doctor if we could take dad home and if any tests are required we could get him to the Hospital for tests. Dad’s house is just 2 Kms away from the hospital and we are 4 siblings and we all have our own cars. So, someone taking him to the hospital was never an issue.
Here is where the doctor played his trump card. He said, “You can take your Dad home on your own risk and sign a declaration that if anything happens to him, the doctor or the hospital is not responsible”. Though this sounds very reasonable, it scares the kids however old they themselves may be. What if something happens to him when he is back home? We will never be able to forgive ourselves.
So comes Day 5… Nothing Diagnosed
Day 6…same as above.
We spoke to the doctor and again the same reply. Same reaction by us. So, dad is still in the hospital without anything being diagnosed. Just for clarity, no medication was given to him other than the regular he used to have which are old age related.
Day 7 Same as the other days.
By now everyone started telling us how long do we intend to keep dad in the hospital. It was time to take a decision and get him discharged.
Also, dad who has always been a happy go lucky guy, was getting depressed and was now feeling old and mentally feeling weak. This became a big worry for us. He also wanted to get out of the hospital and go home.
Day 8. Again, nothing diagnosed.
Eventually on day 9 we realized we are caught in a vicious circle. We realized dad will be here until we take a strong decision.
We had to get out of this vicious circle.
But this time we decided we are not going to sign anything but let the Hospital give us in writing why they are keeping him in the hospital giving the insurance company as the reason for this letter.
The doctor immediately gave us the permission to take dad home. Discharged papers were ready in an hour and Dad was in the car heading for home.
It has been 4 months and by the grace of God, dad has been fine since then.
The surprising part is, no new medication was prescribed except some vitamins etc., and the Doctors advice to him was, “eat well and everything will be fine”
Though we were very happy to get Dad back home, it dawned on us that this was a very smooth scam.
I mean I understand hospitalization for a day or two but 8 days of no diagnoses, no medication, just rest in hospital is surprising. But who can argue with the doctor in whose hands we are giving our life to be saved.
My next experience was when I got hospitalized after my accident last month which was exactly the opposite of what happened with my dad and I feel scammed again.
To Be Continued in PART 2
