In Houston, we have a choice when it comes to top rated hospitals and medical facilities. We are talking world class hospitals, with advanced cutting edge treatments, and state of the art tinker toys. I can remember when my niece, Dr. Lindsay, was visiting medical schools here, she was impressed that a disease or condition didn't have a floor in a hospital, nor a wing, but an entire complex devoted to care, training and research. As an almost native Houstonian (anything in our little melting pot over 25 years counts), you take that for granted, and really never think about it, until you need it. Boy--we have need it this year---and we have gotten our frequent patient card punched (mileage available with deductible payments), just ask United Healthcare--we are in the BOGO surgical program. We will use the last 90 days of the year for any medical clean up--deductibles are all paid in full--- Sure, the drive from the 'burbs is a pain, and traffic stinks, but there are people that drive/fly/take the Greyhound to receive treatment at one of our hospitals. Staying in area hotels for days or weeks at a time..so quit griping. Over the last couple of months, I have spent my fair share of time at several of these well rated institutions. Idle minds kinda of thing---thought you would like my opinion---kinda like the Medical Mystery Shopper---of non-treatment related items. These are not the things that US News and World Reports ranks, but musings of a chemo brain.
Surgically waiting areas are for family members Face it, I am old school when it comes to hospitals, I liked visiting hours, no children under 12 years old rules, nurses with white stockings and pointy little hats, but what do I know. St L's Barney purple sign clearly states "1" family member per patients. Pickle's color in the lines, I am the "1" for Eddie...I guess higher level math skills escaped everyone else in the place. Four small children do not count as "1" or "2" (as in 4 1/2 pints equal 2)...particularly when they are running and trying to pour hot coffee for themselves. Further, just because it is around Easter time, and families are visiting, these areas are not party rooms. This is for the large family that snagged the cart and brought up groceries and sandwich plates and set up a buffet line with chairs...really....they could have had an Easter egg hunt for the 4 small children. Just because those rules aren't posted doesn't mean than don't exist...
After visiting the various surgical waiting areas, "The" Methodist Hospital (not to be confused with "A" Methodist hospital) has the best facilities. More comfortable seating, convenient to Starbucks,cafeteria, gift shop, the front door, locked crap closet (to hold all the junk you are to wag for hours on end) and a specialty coffee and tea bar. Even the street person that crashed the place thought it was great, he stayed for several cups of hospitality.
The sign that indicates "no cell phone usage" ...this means no...hospitals should have a cone of silence, and knock out cell signals...of course, AT&T doesn't work in parts of St. Luke's, so I did not have a problem. Just because you have a small phone doesn't mean you have to speak loudly to be heard. Patient's privacy act rules do not exist. I can look at everyone in the room and tell you what condition their loved one had before surgery and what was the outcome of said surgery...additionally what time you got here, where you parked, what your waking blood sugar was and which pills you have had today. At least the younger generations text, tweet, post to Facebook (with videos)....progress? Like I said, I am not sure why the hospitals are worried about privacy issues.
Hospital food for families--- MD Anderson wins hands down...Methodist is okay, St. Luke's has a cafeteria--kinda like the one you remember from high school (bleh), but the MickeyD's on first gets the lion's share of the traffic, guess they are making sure they have patients for the Texas Heart institute. Eddie wanted me to leave him some cash for a Big Mac and fries if he did not like what was on the tray at meal time. Not sure who was going to make the run for him...I did not leave enough cash for bribes.
Parking--Loser is MD Anderson St Luke's at the Woodlands. While they are building parking to catch up, the employees and construction workers get first dibs on the space around the building, you need just about the same amount of time to get there as you do to look for parking...but it free...you get what you pay for.(User tip - Best keep secret, the valet parking is free, except for the tip..but Eddie and I like to hold the car control stick) Methodist is always full and beware of the flood gates on a rainy day, it can cause a three hour wait for your car...be there done that and it still is $14 a day. St. Luke's is great, but at 5:00 AM there are just not that many folks in line. MD Anderson is good, but make sure where you need to go, the campus is huge, you can do you mile walk just getting to the elevator bank, at least they use an airport style golf cart to move you from one huge building to another. User tip---if you are at one of the downtown facilities and plan on spending more than 5 hours - use the valet - it is the same as the parking garage will cost you.
Compassion quotient - Probably St. Luke's by a nose over Methodist. Doesn't hurt that the Chaplain in Resident at St Luke's knows Ed from Jr. High and High School, know Lauren and Drew, along with Lauren's in-laws ..and 'da Bishop is a Camp Allen alum (there is that FOL thing, again) but there is a level of care on the part of the entire staff present that has nothing to do with your body.
Facilities - MD Anderson, period. Some 5 stars hotels should be this nice. Waterfalls, Green spaces, artwork---plus multiple state of the art toys for treatment. Grateful wealthy cancer survivors and #1 in the world rankings don't hurt either...Methodist tries hard, with a beautiful lobby, grand piano, fountains. Poor St. Luke's---It is more like a hallway at the high school, but who is spending time in the grand lobby anyway.
Public Bathrooms - get your cootie shots, friends. If you want to know why there are diseases spread in hospital settings, look no farther than the restrooms. Good grief...forget white glove clean, just put a rubber glove dispenser outside each. On one early morning arrival to a basement level hospital restroom, revealed a street person leaving this hospital's bathroom shaking his head and saying it was nasty. Okay, that is bad. While I don't consider myself a total germ-o-phob, I have been to service station bathroom/visitor center bathrooms that are cleaner than those in the hospital. Since I turned on the lights in the surgical waiting room at St. Luke's, I did see it being cleaned...and since I was still there 9 hours later (Eddie was out of surgery by 8:30, recover and room ready by 10:00---stacked up in recovery waiting for a cleaned (?) room on 18th floor--) There were at least 100 people (and some had a really big lunch) in that space over those 9 hours--2 holes--one female one male---no one came by to do anything---the uck factor was off the scale.
Patients' report - Eddie (Code Purple--and his left leg is just that) is doing well and surprisingly compliant with the Doctor's orders, but bored of my company---all good things, George (Code Green) has a countdown clock on his phone and ipad for his May 22nd surgery--and is doing great, Krazy Karen (Code Pink) - a little weary from the past week's activities but looking forward to Tuesday's 3rd round of chemo so I can put one more flamingo in the yard and proclaim that I am half way done with chemo. As always, we are thankful for your prayers and well wishes.
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