How to tell if a hospital is right for you.

             Feisty Pants is, as you know, disabled. By the time she six years old, she had been hospitalized somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 times. (That's her pediatrician's estimate.  We lost count after 2 dozen) While this in no way makes us an expert on anything medical, dealing with eight hospitals and therefore 8 "health systems" (the way hospitals label their bureaucracy and network of clinics and doctors) in several states does give us some insight. The actual count is 8 hospitals, 1 NICU, 6 PICU's, 5 surgical units, 1 step down unit, 8 peds wards, 8 ER's,  about half a dozen medical helicopters, 1 private medical plane and a partridge in a pear tree. All of which makes for a rather opinionated mom.

             So, how do you tell if a hospital (or even a doctor) is right you or your loved one?  It is hard to know until you had their care but there are several things you can do to make sure you make the right choice for you.  First, make friends with your favorite search engine.  Search on "hospital report cards + (insert name of condition or procedure here)"  or "best care for (fill in the blank) for kids/elderly/women/men/etc".  You can even search on individual doctors and find their educational background and certifcations- often right through the hospital's website.  Search the hospital's website. If they have received any commendations or awards for excellence, they will trumpet the fact all over their website.  My favorite award to see is Magnet status for nursing. I relax when I see that on a website.  If you can, find out who manages the place. Doctors who run hospitals run them better than administrators.  (My own doctor once said, " In a perfect hospital, you'd have doctors bossing doctors and nurses in charge of everybody.")

            There are also some things to look for when you are there.  Watch how the doctors interact with the other employees- especially the respiratory techs and nurses.  Are the docs respectful of their opinion? Do they listen to what the nurses have to say?  Hospitals that enforce the hierarchy too much are simply not going to give good care.  Nurses and respiratory techs are the people who are most hands on with the patients and generally have a better idea of how the patient is faring and how the treatments are working than the doctors.  And a good hospital works hard to retain good employees.  If the nurses are not treated very well or their opinions are dismissed- take my advice RUN, do not walk, away.  Do the people who work there seem happy at their jobs?  We all have good and bad days at work, but if everyone seems tense all the time, something is wrong.

           Are you encouraged to visit or even stay? If you are in charge of the patient's care (for say, your child or elderly loved one) do they encourage your questions and opinions?  If the people working there are not happy to see you, ask your self why. Does the place seem clean?  Seriously, hospitals are never very sterile but they should seem that way to an outsider.  Have you noticed their security people?  They should be in the background, but they should be visible.

                    Most of all, what are you instincts telling you?  Hospitals are stressful scary places for many people , but if something seems off or wrong, you should start asking lots of questions. If no one will answer you, that's a sign its the wrong place.  The people who work in hospitals know patients are often nervous and good ones go out their way to answer questions and do all sorts of things to make you feel at ease.  A little background info and a lot of "it's my body and I'm in charge of it" attitude will make all the difference in how you feel and make for better health care in the long run.