What Worries Do You Have?
By Joan Melton, APRN, Harrison Crawford Healthcare
What worries do you have when you go to a hospital or doctor visit? Some worry about hearing bad news that might forever change their day-to-day life. While other people worry about having to step onto a scale to weigh. Other people worry about having to spend a long time waiting. Some patients worry about having expensive and uncomfortable tests. Most people worry about the cost of medications and the cost of healthcare. They wonder how they will ever be able to pay all their medical bills. Some people worry about not understanding why recommended tests are even necessary. Many other people worry about side effects from taking medications. There are other people, who worry about needle sticks. While many other people worry about taking too much time off work.
Most of us can answer “yes” to having one or more of these same worries. These worries and emotions are all valid and very real. When patients have an appointment at Harrison County Hospital (HCH) and Harrison County Physician Practices, the staff understands these worries. They try their best to address each patient’s worries individually. That is the advantage of being a patient at Harrison County Hospital, the face-to-face individual, personal care. Harrison County Hospital staff understands each patient is unique and presents with their own worries and concerns. Each person’s needs are different.
You can be sure that Harrison County Hospital staff have also experienced similar worries when they or their families have been a patient. One HCH staff member shared her experience. Her spouse has routine surgical procedures every six months to monitor a chronic health condition and has cancer-screening tests. Each time the six-month visit arrives, emotions start to stir for her and her husband. She remembers that after the procedure the staff directs her to wait in a “counseling room” for the surgeon to come in and report results of the procedure. She has learned to hate the “counseling room”. It makes her feel very uncomfortable to sit in an empty room alone waiting. Knowing this, she now asks not to go in the “counseling room” but instead to wait in the recovery room next to her husband. Being by her husband’s side makes her feel much calmer. This simple step helps ease her worries.
Harrison County Hospital staff understands and works on their delivery systems of care to help lessen patient’s worries. They work to make the patient’s experience better by trying to limit wait time, have quicker turn-around time in getting test results, be prepared for patient visits, share health information with other providers involved with the patient’s care. They do their best to make sure expensive tests and medications are covered services approved by the patient’s health insurance and are necessary. The staff takes time to explain what to expect when a patient has additional tests and follow-up appointments and the reason it is important to have those things done. HCH is also striving to help patients have a better experience by keeping most of the patient’s care close to home.
The staff understands there are many reasons to worry when going to the hospital or doctor’s office and all of us have unique needs. Harrison County Hospital treats patients all like individual people, the way we would want to be treated. Help us understand what kind of worries you have so that we might continue to work toward making your hospital or doctor visit a better, more personal experience.
To schedule an appointment with Joan Melton, APRN, you may contact 812-738-3086