I’m truly curious. Not even trying to complain, I understand the hospitals are full but like what takes so long to print paperwork?
UPDATE: Thank you all for your input and responses, it definitely helped the time pass by. We are home now. I do understand waiting is not suffering but at some point something has to give. We have an infant and toddler who had to be left with family and we were anxious to get home to them. I understand we are not the only people who have ever had to wait for discharge. I was truly curious as to what the hold up is. After getting incoming responses seeming to state that this is normal, it all got to me. This should not be normal and the patient, critical or not, should not have to get the short end of the stick. Reality or not. In a perfect world I guess.
Sorry to all the underpaid, over worked staff.
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Because the doctor who has the final say on this is busy and so is everyone else. They’re not going to chase down the doctor just so you can go. They’re going to wait until the doc comes back around your way.
You got some good answers already so I’ll add, never just walk out. My dad did this. He was not in his right mind during covid lock-down and I wasn’t able to be there to reason with him. This caused the most insane amount of BS, red-tape ever in the history of humanity. And I had medical power of attorney at the time and his doc wasn’t communicating with me. I ended up getting no medical support once I got him home while he was in the process of dying. It took a pharmacist that was just following up with his meds to get everybody in line again. That person was a saint.
Because the doctor who has the final say on this is busy and so is everyone else. They’re not going to chase down the doctor just so you can go. They’re going to wait until the doc comes back around your way.
You got some good answers already so I’ll add, never just walk out. My dad did this. He was not in his right mind during covid lock-down and I wasn’t able to be there to reason with him. This caused the most insane amount of BS, red-tape ever in the history of humanity. And I had medical power of attorney at the time and his doc wasn’t communicating with me. I ended up getting no medical support once I got him home while he was in the process of dying. It took a pharmacist that was just following up with his meds to get everybody in line again. That person was a saint.
Pro tip: As others have said, hospital pharmacy can take hours. If you know you are going home with medication, ask your doctor for the paper script for you to fill at your local pharmacy (sometimes the doctor can send the script electronically to your pharmacy). Picking up the prescription yourself can save you hours of waiting around for meds from the hospital’s pharmacy.
Pro tip: As others have said, hospital pharmacy can take hours. If you know you are going home with medication, ask your doctor for the paper script for you to fill at your local pharmacy (sometimes the doctor can send the script electronically to your pharmacy). Picking up the prescription yourself can save you hours of waiting around for meds from the hospital’s pharmacy.
Basically comes down to 2 things that take time –
1) there are multiple things to do for each patient
2) the people who need to do them have multiple patients.
(OP, I absolutely understand and agree with your frustration, believe me healthcare workers are generally the most frustrated that these things end up getting backed up – you have a horrible day, they have multiple people nagging them all the way up to yelling at them every day. Put in your patient feedback, express your concern, the more people complain the more likely you get increased staffing and attention paid to the discharge process).
In the case of discharges, it’s less about resourcing of that specific step, as hospitals generally are very keen to get discharges done quickly as it frees up beds. It’s more about overall resourcing and how busy the people who have to do the tasks are.
Basically comes down to 2 things that take time –
1) there are multiple things to do for each patient
2) the people who need to do them have multiple patients.
(OP, I absolutely understand and agree with your frustration, believe me healthcare workers are generally the most frustrated that these things end up getting backed up – you have a horrible day, they have multiple people nagging them all the way up to yelling at them every day. Put in your patient feedback, express your concern, the more people complain the more likely you get increased staffing and attention paid to the discharge process).
In the case of discharges, it’s less about resourcing of that specific step, as hospitals generally are very keen to get discharges done quickly as it frees up beds. It’s more about overall resourcing and how busy the people who have to do the tasks are.
As someone from the construction industry all I can say is that hospitals and perhaps even most health care professionals don’t understand what it’s like to be time efficient. It’s not on their radar. I know they’re understaffed and thats probably largely to blame. However there’s still way too much conversation, yet somehow still lacking important communication that could save time, there’s dawdling, standing around, and general disregard for time. Drs especially guilty on this. Maybe it’s the long shifts.
You said you had two kids you needed to get to. But you chose to wait at the hospital with your husband. So that’s kinda on you.
And before you come at me, I’m a single mum with no help. I have been in and out of hospital constantly over the past 9 months while I’ve battled cancer. I’ve had to call in favours to have my daughter cared for. If I had a partner who was just sitting with me, waiting for me to be discharged, I’d tell them to leave and tend to the kids and I’ll get an Uber home.
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