I've been mainly on evening due to shortage of staffs. Let's go. This time we are going with Final Fantasy character names.
*This post is going to sound a little depressive and negative, hence why I'm throwing some humour here and there.
Feeling Like A Fool
I received a phone call from Cyan, claiming that they have read something from our website regarding EECP. I was super confused at first because when I accessed the site, I don't see anything. The most I saw was a heart screening package, but no EECP. When I tried explaining to Cyan, they insisted that it was on the website. What makes it worse they called just after office hours, which is really tough if you get tricky stuff like this. I was lucky that that Cyan is a nice person, because they were patient because the previous few whom I encountered were not friendly. ("You should know everything!!!!")
*Enhanced External Counter Pulsation (EECP) is performed as a non-invasive treatment to lower the number and intensity of angina episodes.
Source: Frankel Cardiovascular Center Michigan Medicine, EECP (Enhanced External Counter Pulsation) Treatment https://www.umcvc.org/conditions-treatments/eecp-enhanced-external-counter-pulsation-treatment
After office hours, I called up a few departments whom I know usually stays up a little late. None of them could give me an answer. I even went as far as to call other hospitals, nope. Zilch. So I prayed to my lucky stars and hoped the doctors whom I on good terms with answer my phone calls. Thankfully they did. They were laughing good-heartedly at my dilemma and told me that no one does it here, but to divert them to the government hospital. They were nice about it, caught me off guard by asking me the general line of the place. I gave it to them via my directory. Then they asked me whether I know anyone there. What??? Sorry, I don't.
Mr Google Says It's Contagious
The internet is really a double-edged sword. I used it mainly for research, but not for medical related. I received this call from a family. They were just discharged from the ward and forgot to ask Dr Locke regarding H.Pylori. I don't know why didn't they bother asking the ward but they called my side, and I answered the call. I'm speechless when they asked me out of the blue. "Is H.Pylori contagious?"
Me: Before I could dive in any further, could you please share with me a little background here?
Edgar* (not their real name): Oh, my child was admitted for H.Pylori treatment and was just discharged. We forgot to ask whether the disease is contagious.
Me: What makes you say that?
Edgar: Well, I read about it in Mr Google that H.Pylori is contagious.
Me: (Mary, Mother of God, ARE YOU KIDDING ME???) Unless you share contaminated food.
Edgar: Oh, you mean I can't share food with my child?
Me: No.
Edgar: Oh, I'm healthy, can I share food with my child then?
Me: No.
Edgar: Oh. Then when can we share food together?
Me: Mr Edgar, I presume that Dr Locke gave your child some H.Pylori medications right, roughly about 2 weeks worth?
Edgar: (sounding surprised) Yes.
Me: I would suggest that you get your child to complete the medications first, follow up with him then only you can share your food safely. (Besides, with Covid on the rise, you shouldn't even be sharing food with anyone)
Edgar: Oh, okay. Thanks for the advice.
My sister once suffered H.Pylori years back. I was with her with the doctor at that time. He told me on no circumstances I'm allowed to share food with her, and H.Pylori is passed through saliva, vomit, fecal matter, not to mention if you are eating contaminated food or water (And you wonder why Gordon Ramsay is being such a jerk for screaming at people, well, contaminated food kills people faster than anything else, besides the usual fatal wounds). Hence why I said STRICTLY NO SHARING FOOD. Which is why I feel like screaming my head off. Don't believe Mr Google for God's sake.
Source: Buzzfeed: 14 Surprising Facts You Didn't Know About Gordon Ramsay by Jesse Szewczyk, 14 Surprising Facts You Didn't Know About Gordon Ramsay (buzzfeed.com)
*Not a fan of him, but I respect the man's integrity and morals.
Covid, Covid, Covid
Not sure what's with my luck lately. Around 6pm on the dot, I will always get Covid Enquiries. Reason why I didn't like it is 1) No backup 2) I'm just a lowly nurse 3) Due to my position, I can't just call specialists out of the blue and go "Whaddup.". Yes, there are some doctors whom I'm friendly with, but at the end of the day, I'm not in the same ranking as them, and some...are just downright mean. And most of them won't attend to you after office hours because they're humans. They have lives outside of the hospital. To be honest, I won't disturb them either unless it is a life and death situation. Some of the calls I get were downright pushy, as in: ''I want to get admitted NOW." Sorry, but the process is ridiculously long, not to mention there are several legal paperwork(s) involved. And most of the staff are office hour so...Just be patient okay. I once called the Emergency for help and let me be frank, they weren't amused. I can hear people yelling in the back and I was like, "Look, I just want someone to help go through with me regarding the legal works..." But no one was listening. And who could blame them? The Emergency Department is like a warzone. Scratch that, hospitals are a warzone.
Chinese ONLY Please
This...needs to be abolished. I don't know what's with people lately. I really don't. The first thing you answer the phone is people talking to you all in Mandarin/ Cantonese/ Hokkien, whatever Chinese speaking dialect you can think of, but mainly Mandarin. It makes me sad that our own people, not China Chinese, mind you, can't even speak basic Bahasa Malaysia or English. I'm not talking about fancy, flowery proses here, I'm talking about basic conversational stuff. I don't even know how school children who are practically learning Bahasa Malaysia as a compulsory language, can come up to me and said with a straight face: "Oh, I don't speak Bahasa or English." This is why I respect the Indonesians, Japanese, French, Dutch, Polish which I'm listing off my head, because they speak their mother tongue fluently. I will admit, no matter how awkward my Bahasa is, I could at least hold conversations and communicate with the locals. And as I have said so many times in the past, our surat rasmi, anything official are all in Bahasa Malaysia. The daily covid news report by the government: Bahasa Malaysia. Anywhere you go, what do you see first? Bahasa Malaysia. Please, let's get out of the Dark Ages mindset already.
Government Hospital Settings Are Filthy
This mindset has also got to go. We are not in the Dark Ages anymore. If anything, I would say the government side of things are on par with our treatment. The only issue as I have mentioned before were the waiting time. Besides, our government setting friends are busy fighting the pandemic first. We got complains from the patients saying that no one attended them. It's overexaggerating. We are very sure that they come to you at least once for morning rounds. And may we remind you that we are busy fighting a pandemic? They wouldn't have time to attend to you since there are plenty of people who needs help. Please be understanding.
- "What would you all know? You guys are private!" We get that a lot. People always claim because we are private, we get private care. I mentioned this before, if my insurance doesn't cover me, I will go to government without question, because not all of us can afford luxurious five star pricing. I did scaling for my teeth and it cost me me a mere RM3, including registration and doctor's fee. If I go private, you know how much it costs? Roughly RM 100++. But wait. "Their things are filthy. They're never clean." Um, I saw their tools and they are all pretty shiny... If it's filthy, they will be having the Department of Health knocking on their doors pretty soon...
- Fun fact: Before doctors come over to private practice, all of them work in the government sector first. It is a requirement. How come you never hear them saying the government sides are filthy? I only hear that they don't have time because everything is fast-paced and you don't have time to rest. Once you come in, everything comes to you.
Selective Hearing
Working in servicing line for a long time, patients tends to be selective to what they hear. I once quoted a person AROUND RM3,500 for a procedure. I don't know how it became RM 3,500 NETT. The person, let's call them Kefka, went yelling into my ear on how I was a liar, how the price ended up being slightly higher due to some things. This is why I never liked talking about prices, because this is not a supermarket, where the prices are all fixed (even then, I will still recommend you to go to a price scanner before making a payment to save yourself a ton of headache) This is why record logs are extremely important. It's the same for everything else. When I said: "Come before 12 because doctor So-and-So may need to send you for scans and blood tests." People showed up at 12 on the dot and lashed out: "You said before 12, so I came at 12. It's not wrong!" Mmhmm. Next.
Agents Are Not My Cup Of Tea
Never did liked most insurance agents. I remembered a long time ago, we all have a friend who will call you to meet up at Starbucks, out of the blue. Why would you think it's suspicious? It's your friend. When you come up, you were somehow shoehorned into a sort of MLM scheme or forced to buy insurance for them to meet their quota. This is why friendships turned sour very quickly. It's pretty much the main reason why I never liked marketing in the first place. You have to be charismatic, not to mention with an edge to get people to buy your products. Eh, this is why I'm a lousy marketing person.
When Someone Mispronounced Something...
A colleague attended this call. The person on the other end muttered something about their nose hurt when they are looking at the PC and their phone. I didn't understood it. My colleague asked if there's such a thing. Not that I know of. I asked is it related to vertigo? They said no. Sounds weird, but if it's a nose problem, just refer to the ear, nose, throat doctor. I'm sure they can figure something out. So my colleague called to make the appointment. Few seconds later, the person on the other line said: "Nose? Why would I need to see a nose doctor?" My colleague repeated their complaint back to them and the person went, "Oh...Actually it's not my nose. It's my nerve."
MARY, MOTHER OF GOD!!!
Nose => Nerve
Source: Oh God Facepalm GIF By Gordon Ramsay https://gph.is/2lIawxm
How, how did this happen? At least that makes sense. I don't know how nose became nerve. There's a big difference, and we refer them to a neurologist in the end.
Last Minute, No Problem!
I received an email early in the morning on how someone demand to do a Covid test now to get onto a flight due at evening. You're expecting miracles here. I called our lab to enquire about the time. Knowing that we are the same, my colleague on the other end says, "Assuming we can speed up the process, it will still require a minimum of 6 hours. And they are not the only ones who are doing the test. We get thousands of sample coming our way, and all of them are equally important." I thought so. Don't expect miracles to happen. If you are flying the next day, please get a Covid test done before your flight, because it is impossible to get a last minute test. I replied to the email as polite as possible and gave them the fliers on how they can make an appointment and go for the test. Hopefully they did it.
Everything Is 24 Hours
We are not robots. This one is related to the case above, except the person has booked a flight on another day and expect to do a Covid Test during Chinese New Year. Sorry, our staffs are not on duty on that day. The argument was: "All hospitals are 24 hours. I assume that you all will be on duty." See, don't assume. This is why always double confirm early and get your facts ready before booking a flight.
- Here's a story that somehow links to this. A colleague had a phone call around 5am regarding their condition, which sounds quite serious, so my colleague direct them to go Emergency now. The response: "I want to see a specialist, why would I want to go to Emergency?" Um, because they mentioned that it's serious in the first place. So my colleague said since it's 5 am, no one is in work yet and it's best for them to go to Emergency where we have our team on duty. Instead, my colleague got blasted over the phone on how they didn't want to go Emergency and wanted to come and see a specialist NOW. They couldn't even be bothered to wait till office hours. Good grief. Please, don't do that. In the end, we contacted them around 9am and all's well, ends well.
Reluctant To Share Information
Someone sent an email and complained that it is weird that they have to call to make their own appointment. (Isn't that the point?) To avoid complications, I called the sender several times but they refused to answer. Unsure, I dropped them several messages via phone. I immediately got tons of messages coming my way. The person, let's call them Strago didn't read the information on the site properly before this and assume everyone does teleconsultation where it is written clearly that they don't. So they weren't happy about it. I send them the ones who are doing it and advised them to kindly share their history so that I am able to direct them where to go. Instead, I got tons of messages that says whether their privacy will be breached since they sounded convinced that someone else is reading our phone messages. I assured them several times that the only people who will know about their history is the relevant party involved. I kept asking them to share their history but they outright refused, dodging all my questions and countering with questions of their own. It's like an endless game of ping pong. The ball is at your court. If you refuse to throw it back, your loss, not ours. In the end, we gotten nowhere and I closed the case.
Silver Platters All The Way
I asked a senior staff for advice on how to deal with difficult people. The short answer: "They expect to be treated like Kings and Queens." Who doesn't? But if I want something to go smoothly, I would rather go hands on, if you know what I mean. I'll give a non-medical related example here. I want to write a book, I have the idea but I don't know how to execute it. So I get a ghostwriter to write for me. I don't bother to check. Why should I? I know the ghostwriter will do a good job. What happens if the story doesn't happens the way you want it? Are you going to blame the ghostwriter? This is why it's a writer's job to make sure everything goes smoothly before publishing/submitting their works. I hope I got the meaning across. Don't expect things to be handed to you on silver platters.
Mayday, Mayday
*conversation is slightly edited to simplify the points across and for privacy
Me: "Hello?"
Setzer: "Hi, my family member was diagnosed positive and they are on the way to your place now."
Me: "Beg your pardon?"
Setzer: I called up few days ago. My family member was diagnosed positive and your colleague says they can come in anytime.
Me: (Don't like where this is going) Where are you based from?
Setzer: *mutters*
Colleague: (They have been listening the whole time) Give me the phone. Call Emergency NOW! (passes the phone over to them) We need the car license plate and model now!
Me: (The same thought has been going through my head cause my fingers were dialing Emergency) Pick up, pick up, pick up.
Colleague #1: Hi.
Me: Get ready NOW! There's a Covid positive heading your way.
Colleague #1: WHAT?!
Me: There's a Covid positive heading your way. Get ready!
Colleague #1: How did this even happen?
Me: JUST GET READY NOW! GET YOUR TEAM READY!
Colleague #1: On it.
Colleague: *mutters car model and license number*
Me: Colleague #1, here's the car license number and model.
Colleague #1: We just saw that car turning in! They are heading to our parking bay!
Me: What now?
Colleague #1: Hold tight, we're getting someone to intercept them now!
You're probably thinking, what's the issue? Well, if we haven't warned the team downstairs, the person would've ended up endangering everyone unknowingly. The security, the customers, the staff, the entire building. Long story short, the person was admitted in the end. Sometimes it feels like we are doing mission control here because we have to coordinate everyone, otherwise there would've been chaos.
That Crushed Feeling
I attended a call regarding positive cases. It involves three children who are really small. The relative called us for help to admit. I wish we could, but we can't accept their cases because we are not equipped for the job. Not to mention it tore me on the inside because I couldn't help them. I felt helpless. And the relative was begging me to help, and just for the sake of recording, I took down the history, but even after I took the record down, I know in my heart I have to turn away the case because there's no choice. They had multiple symptoms, and judging from the history, they could turn serious anytime. The whole family would've slowly turned positive because you need to stay with children. If they are teenagers, maybe...we could've help, but children who are not old enough to know better...you can't leave them alone. I had to beg them to go to the nearest government hospital emergency and pray for the best. Not going to lie, I took some time to compose myself.
Happy Chinese New Year Happy Niu Year to those who are celebrating. Let's hope for an ox-picious year ahead. This year's the Year of the OX. Stay safe, stay healthy.
Source: happy-chinese-new-year-2021-greeting-card_83111-403.jpg (626×402) (freepik.com)
Here's some relaxing lo-fi music to listen to. (I don't know the name of the song, but I loved it so much that I just play this video just to listen to it)
Source: Rainbow Chrome Nail Tool Kit (How To Use🧰) - YouTube by Holo Taco/ Simply Nailogical*Today's case: 3,499 (Aiyeee!)
**Edit: Oh, it's just past midnight here. Happy Valentine's Day to those who are celebrating
