unreasonable old man

brought my mum to the hematology center to have her infusion today. when we arrived, there was a bloody angry old man. i will not write the details of what transpired between the old man and the nurses, but suffice to say this old man was damned too bloody hostile and downright unreasonable. from the conversation (or rather, more like screaming on the part of the old man), here's what i managed to piece...

the old man had dropped the wife and daughter at the porch of the hospital block and proceeded to park his car. as he couldn't find a parking lot in the same block, he went around and managed to only get a lot 2 blocks away (which by sgh's standard and crowd, he was actually very fortunate). he arrived at the center 25 minutes later, obviously agitated. and when he saw his wife and daughter still waiting for her injection to be administered, he blew his top and blasted the nurses present for not attending to her.

now, what happened was that he had only brought the billing sheet and as it was not a prescription, the nurses could not order for the drugs. as such, the nurses had to call the doctor who issued the treatment to draw out a new prescription. not satisfied with the nurses' explanation that they could not start the process without a proper prescription, he scolded them for being inefficient and wasting his time for accordingly, he would therefore be late for his next appointment. and he went on to scream at the top of his voice that he was a paying patient and as such to get such a service was unacceptable.

he then turned to his wife and daughter and scolded them for being stupid and allowing the nurses to bully them into waiting unnecessarily. the wife simply looked helpless, kept quiet and let him scold. but the daughter, who seemed a little retarded, was obviously not happy at being scolded in public and rebuked him. she instead blamed the delay on him and said that he should have brought the other form instead (which i suspected was the prescription). the old man insisted he was right and that she should just shut up. he then turned back to the nurses and continued scolding them.

by that time, a team of nurses had gathered and they were frantically checking the patient's case file to see if there were any prescriptions issued. the old man continued to lambast the nurses for their inefficiencies. the poor nurses could not do anything but continue in their desperate but futile attempts to find the prescription. and through the whole period, the old man continue to blast every single one present. and he went on about how he and his wife (and daughter) had rushed to the hospital and that he had to drive at 90km/hr to meet the appointed time just to be kept waiting. and he demanded and insisted that they give the injection straightaway. the nurses held on and insisted they could not do so as there was no proper prescription, and that made the man even more agitated "you mean after 25.. no, now 30min the medication has still not arrived? this is not acceptable! you mean all these while you people were just sitting there and wasting my time?..." the old man went on and on. by this time, the old man had snatched one of the documents and started chiding the nurse for charging him for something that was not properly explained to him in his last visit. with no way to cool this man down, one of the nurses decided to call the nursing manager.

the nursing manager came soon and did a quick check on the situation and the cause of the issue. she apologized to the old man for the delay but insisted that they have to follow protocols in the interest of the patient. she tried to explain again about the need for the prescription before they could proceed to get the pharmacy to release the medication. the nursing manager also asked the nurses to prepare the equipment so that once the medication arrive, they could proceed immediately. all these happened and amidst the non-stop accusations of inefficiencies and lousy services by the old man. when finally the medication arrive, the infusion proceeded within seconds. even then the old man was not happy for he now scolded the nurse for the slow administration and payment... the room only had some quiet after he stormed out of it. sighs. you very well know how hostile the whole room got. there were quite a few other patients in the room too and all looked at the old man with eyes full of disgust. but what totally pissed me off was:

• he was downright unreasonable and hostile. there may be inefficiencies in the hospital, but he should not take it out on the nurses. and if there are any service lapses, he should have taken it up with the management and not throw his temper on the nurses. don't shoot the messenger, especially when the messenger were trying so hard to help you solve the issue. 

• i find it totally wrong when the old man's starting point was that the nurses were out to bully his wife. he shouldn't have gotten personal about it. who was the wife to the nurses that they have to deliberately bully? not a logical conclusion. simply emotional. i thought it reflected his own bad character instead.

• from what his daughter said (when she rebuked him), i could only suspect he was the cause of the whole delay since he did not bring "one particular document". and if so, he did not have the right to chide the hospital staff!

• it is not the first time he had brought his wife to the center. i am sure he would have waited too previously. and if so, why make so much noise now? i am sure he flared up and took it out on the nurses becos he was agitated with something else (finding a car park lot?).

• lastly, i find it totally unacceptable for him to scold his wife and daughter for being stupid and allowing people to bully them. whatever the reasons may be, no one, seriously... no one, should be called stupid, least from a father and a husband.

on the other hand, i was rather impressed with how the nurses kept their cool. of cos there were areas they could have done to calm things down. but certainly, their keeping the cool and escalating the matter to the nursing manager was the right thing to do. and certainly, i could see how the nursing manager had tried to focus on the issue and not the person. and when all things failed, all of them just focused on getting the right treatment to the patient, and leaving the old man to vent... that i thought was the right thing to do. i certainly do empathize with the situations that nurses can get into at times such as this. but well, there was nothing much i could do except to tell them they had handled the situation well and that it was well done! and as for mum, she had a classic response. she was so pissed off with the old man that she kept looking at him and saying out quite loudly that if he was so pissed off with the service, he might as well go home and not gone to the center for treatment. how's that for being direct! hahaha!

:-)