We took my dad to the emergency room the other night. He’d had surgery and was doing well for a couple of days but then wouldn’t eat or drink, so his doc told us to bring him in. “If you can get him in the car don’t call an ambulance, just bring him to the emergency entrance and we’ll take care of it from there.”
We barely got him packed into the car. He is weak and unsteady on his feet. But finally between 3 of us, we managed it and took off for the hospital.
Upon arrival, I went in while mom and dad waited in the car for help unloading. I told the person at the desk that our doctor had told us to bring my dad in and that I needed help getting him from the car.
She looked at me with not even a smidgen of empathy or urgency and said “I don’t have anybody up here who can help you right now. We’ve really been inundated with chest pains today. You can take one of those wheelchairs out and put him in that and then just wheel him in and I’ll try to get somebody to take him.”
REALLY?????
Let me get this straight. You are an emergency room. You are attached to a heart hospital. What exactly are you supposed to be doing 24 hours a day except take in a bunch of people with chest pains… without an appointment?
How is your inability to staff according to need my problem? Why in the world do you think that I want to know what your process problems are? Why did you even come in to work today?
Once again, poor service.
Once again, somebody taking me behind the curtain where I do not belong.
I do not care about your problems. I am here because I have a problem and you are supposed to be a solution provider.
It does not matter if you are a hospital, or a school, or a coffee shop, or a car dealership. When you open your doors, it is to provide a particular solution. Patrons, or customers, or guests, or whatever you call the people who give you their money want you to solve their problem. When you take them behind the curtain to know about your processes and about your shortfalls you are jumping off of the solution provider pedestal. You are destroying your credibility. You are undermining your authority. You are reducing your value.
Stop that.
