We put you in a room, generally without your input, give you a hospital gown to wear and start performing a variety of tests, some of which might take you away from your meals or your sleep.  You may feel confused, anxious and generally disoriented as to what is going to happen to you from minute to minute.  Most of all, you probably can’t imagine that a plan has already been implemented that will quickly move you from admission to discharge.

That plan is established when you are diagnosed with a disease process.  If you have pneumonia, for instance, and have to be admitted to the hospital because you have failed out patient treatment, a protocol is implemented.  An IV antibiotic will be prescribed and administered within 4 hours of your admission, you will receive respiratory therapy as soon as possible, you will be asked to give us a sputum specimen in order to determine what infectious process has made you sick and we will immediately begin a series of blood tests in order to determine if the treatment you are receiving is working.  The goal is to get you well as soon as possible in the shortest number of hospital days.  Congestive heart failure, kidney disease, stroke and heart attack are common disease processes that have similar plans.

Not more than fifteen years ago, a hospital stay for common problems lasted weeks instead of days, costing everyone money, time and trouble.  As has been reported frequently in the news, hospital acquired infections are a major complication of hospitalization.  The shorter your hospital stay, the less chance of you coming home with more problems than you had on admission.

Surgical procedures are at the very top of the list of major improvements in hospital treatment and have been so finely tuned that they reap impressive results.  Robotic and laparoscopic techniques have made same day surgery and discharge routine.  What used to require weeks of recovery now takes only hours.

Increasingly, hospital administrators have become aware of the fact that the patient is a consumer who is researching which hospitals provide the safest, most comfortable and best patient friendly environment.  An informed public has made for better, more efficient patient care.  Electronic medical files have helped to streamline that care while keeping the plan for the best medical outcomes for a particular disease process on track.

Your hospital has an individualized plan just for you the minute you walk in the door.  So, don’t worry but do ask questions. We will be happy to share that plan with you the minute we begin your admission profile.