A Few Random Hospital Things

. . . that didn't fit into the last entry:

• Thank God that Shelby came into the emergency room through the back door, in an ambulance, because the waiting area for Anaheim Memorial's ER was straight out of a healthcare horrorshow: packed to the gills with people who were wearing patient wristbands, but who didn't actually seem to be having an emergency. One or two people were in actual distress (and another had been bleeding rather dramatically just a little while ago, judging from the caked blood on his shirt and the bandages on his arm), but most people were completely placid, looking like their needs could've been met in a regular doctor's office.


• While Shelby was in the hospital, ostensibly improving her health, the dogs and I were on a downward slide: fast food for me, since I didn't have the time or inclination for much else, extra cookies and special treats for the dogs as bribery for having to sit in their crates all day long. It hasn't been much work for me to switch back to the normal routine, but I'm sure that the dogs are wondering where the all of the extra treats went.


• Speaking of healthy eatin', the hospital's vending machine area had a 'Hispanic' vending machine featuring such low-fat/low-cholesterol treats as a giant bag of pork rinds. The 'everyone else' vending machines weren't doing so great either. Maybe they're just trying to drum up business for their obesity clinic ...


• One good thing that the hospital had was WiFi! There were not just one, but four open access points available from Shelby's room. (I guess that I can thank my next-door neighbor for that, as she runs their IS department! For some reason, I thought that she did IS for one of the local school districts -- but no, I ran into her in the lobby as I was headed out for my fast-food lunch.) It's funny that the hospital has the same NO CELLULAR PHONES ON PAIN OF DEATH signs that you'll find in any other hospital, but permanently-installed and undoubtedly sloppy 802.11 radios, broadcasting 24/7, seem to be no problem ...

Posted by Kevin at June 24, 2005 11:51 PM