My First Private Hospital Experience

First of all, I’m only referring this one particular hospital, not others. I’m not rich people, I only go to government hospital or clinic for the services all my life. I only need to pay RM1 and everything would be done nicely for me, very efficiently and don’t waste a lot of my time. Even though the results might take 2 weeks, at least I didn’t have to be tortured by having to wait for one whole morning risking being forgotten and so on. Then again, as if I always go to such places, I don’t, only once in a blue moon but those around me do. The fact is that I hate hospital/clinic especially the atmosphere, I will try to avoid ;p So… Those who asked me to do nursing, it is not my thing, freak the hell out of me.

Today… My very first time using the service of a private hospital in Kuching. I have to… Cannot avoid, it’s part of the requirement. I cannot go other place for it. Sigh…

This is the earliest private hospital in Kuching and many VVIPs like it here, go figure! I tell you hoh… Private hospital should have good service and systematic work process. Patients are paying arm and leg for 5-star service. That’s everyone expectations for sure. Poor people like me cannot afford la… Can go to Sarawak General Hospital(SGH) or polyclinic is good enough already.

Before I start, I need to stress that I’m not targeting the doctors or nurses or receptionists and so on but the moronic system that causes them to work inefficiently.

WTF 1: Called to ask them should I make appointment, they told me that I didn’t have to, I just go will do. Went on Friday afternoon and was sent home because they no longer take patients. They suggested I make appointment so my next visit will be guaranteed. Fine!

WTF 2: There’s no queue management system(QMS) at the clinic in the hospital! Goodness! The nurses had to come out call numbers/names. This is a private hospital with exorbitant charges ok?!?! You don’t have the QMS? Unbelievable! Pity the nurses had to walk in and out all the time shouting out numbers and many times many didn’t listen to it or too noisy. If they have QMS, people can just look at the number on screen and know where to go just like how you do it in the bank, government clinics/hospitals, or other service centers. Also, they can use that time going in and out shouting to organize their tasks or something. FAIL big time! Don’t tell me you cannot afford such system.

WTF 3: If at SGH, if you wait for more than 30 minutes, you can complain but here… I have no idea can or not. So many numbers called, mine never came. Those came later than me all left already! My dad went to the reception counter to ask, they asked my dad to go to ask the nurse. Apparently, they didn’t see my file! They found out my queue number and frantically dig for it from piles of files and documents and found it. Then they promised the next one would be my turn. If my dad didn’t ask, I think I’d be waiting there the whole morning. I don’t think it would ever reach me even in the afternoon. Even with the appointment, there’s no use also.

Not sick also could become sick due to long wait and anger! I wonder whether my blood pressure shoot up or not that time when I was having my blood pressure checked. Finally, it’s my turn, the nurse apologized. I couldn’t blame her really, it’s the problem with the work/document flow. The nurses seemed to be overwhelmed by those responsibilities which can be given to other people to handle rather than doing everything themselves until things became so confusing and disorganized. Whoever was the one came out with such system makes me doubt their capability. The area where the nurses prepare the patients for the doctor was a chaos. At one point, I’m so worry that they might misplace or forget my bottle of urine in the container. I’m so worry that they might forget to submit my report to the relevant authority.

WTF 4: Payment counter has QMS but not the clinic! WOW! This is a very simple message, “we want your money only so we have better queue system here but we don’t care whether you get your turn to see the doctor or not there”.

WTF 5: The nurse led me to the x-ray room. She told me that once I’m done with it, I could just go back to the clinic and inform any nurse to charge me. This thing should be given to someone else to do and going back to simply tell any nurse to get the amount I need to pay seems disorganized. The nurses sure had a lot to do from preparing patients to giving them the bill and lead them to the counter to pay. They even asked each other where’s my bill and looking here and there on the table. A private hospital without a proper automation system to handle all these things is just weird. Where’s the quality? Hmmm… They should learn from SGH. So efficient even though the number of patients is crazily many. I doubt those people actually learn or plan at the end users point of views, they just sit in the office and plan based on their so-called ideals and implement it.

WTF 6: After I paid, I asked the counter people where to get a copy of my test results, she told me to go back to the clinic and ask the reception counter. I went up, they told me to talk to the nurse at the prep area/nurse station(whatever it’s called) because it’s the nurse’s job. Hmm… Everything, the nurse, the nurse, the nurse. Shouldn’t there be a place to collect a report without burdening the nurse? Or at least such queries should be able to be answered by the people at the reception counter. I really pitied the nurses there. They were so overwhelmed with all their work and have to entertain patients queries at a place where the public shouldn’t be allowed to budge in and out disrupting their work flow.

That’s my overall experience and observation of the place. Not a good one. I’m paying almost RM200 for the medical check, getting disappointing service and watching how disorganized they are. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out -.-” at least have the QMS installed and you will be a bit more efficient!

For people like me, that is a lot of money to pay and I’m expecting at least better service than the government ones but it’s otherwise. I could get much better service with RM1 at government polyclinic but too bad I couldn’t do it there.

However, I believe they all tried their best to provide their best service and attitude. It’s just the moronic process that made everyone life so difficult.

P/S: Supposed to blog about the events last weekend but will do this post first, need to get it out of my system, piss the hell out of me!