Substandard Patient or Health Care Delivery Paper Essay

Substandard Patient or Health Care Delivery Paper - Essay Example discussed in this paper will relate to the issues of poor communication, resulting in substandard care, and failure to follow basic hygiene guidelines in an Emergency Room (ER) setting. Experience: A few years back, I went to the ER in a large city hospital with a friend who had fallen and broken her wrist. It was only midday, but they were very busy and the receptionist told us we would wait for around 30 minutes to see a triage nurse. Once this happened and a history and details of the accident were taken, we were told to wait to be called to see the doctor. The nurse gave no indication as to how long we would wait. There seemed to be no regular order in place, and at no time did any staff member apologize for delays, ask how people were doing, or announce a waiting time. After two hours, another nurse called us to a treatment cubicle. We waited a further half hour and during that time, I noticed the condition of the cubicle. There was a dirty, used paper towel under the sink, other paper on the floor, and on one wall, there were splashes of dried blood. More worrying, was that when the doctor came in, he straight away began to examine my friend’s wrist, w ithout washing his hands or putting on gloves. His manner was friendly but brusque; he was moving from patient to patient as fast as possible. He told us that bloods and x-rays would be taken, and the nurse came and sent us back to the waiting area. After an hour, we were directed to x-ray and while waiting there, somebody took blood tests. During this time, she was in pain, but because of the need for test results, no pain relief was offered. After 30 more minutes, the x-ray results came back and at this point, the wrist was put in plaster and a sling attached. We could not leave until the bloods results were available. Everybody was polite and efficient, but no apologies for oversights and delays were offered, and we left before the results came; my friend had to sign a disclaimer for doing