A BEDSIDE MATTER
Paul M. Anderson
GLENDALE -- The Glendale Adventist Medical Center chaplain saw
something he didn’t like.
Despite the patient’s stoicism, the chaplain knew there was something
wrong. It turned out the patient was severely depressed. It was the type
of thing a busy nurse easily could have missed, Chaplain Roy Gaton said.
“He was very nice and insisted he was OK, but there was something in
his eyes,” Gaton said.
Gaton and another chaplain visited with patients in the hospital’s
rehabilitation unit last week as part of a new program that gets hospital
executives and leaders out of their offices to meet with patients.
“These are the kinds of things we can catch with the new program,”
Gaton said.
Eleven hospital leaders and department heads visited with patients
last Thursday. The officials asked patients if they had any problems with
the hospital’s care and how they could help.
Glendale Adventist leaders say they were excited to hear most patients
say they were satisfied.
The program is the brainchild of Gwen Brownfield, vice president for
patient care at Glendale Adventist. In November, she grew concerned about
patient care when a hospital census showed an unusual number of patients.
“I woke up one morning worried about them. I thought we need to put
together a SWAT team to see them all,” Brownfield said.
Carol Todd, a patient from Covina, said she was pleased to see
hospital officials who don’t normally meet with patients getting some
feedback from the patients.
“I think it’s good,” Todd said. “How do you know unless you go around
and ask?”
Jim Gaton, manager of strategic planning for Glendale Adventist,
mostly crunches numbers for the hospital. He was one of the department
heads visiting with patients last week. He said the program will help him
do his job better.
“It’ll help me understand when I look at numbers how best to improve
quality,” Jim Gaton said.
Terry Novelli, manager of information services for the hospital,
agreed.
“This gives us a good insight,” Novelli said. “It brings home the fact
that some of these people are really sick. We tend to forget that. It’s a
wake-up call for us.”
Hospital officials have made the visit with patients a monthly event
that is mandatory for all department heads and executives, said Sam
Ocampo, marketing and business development director.