Medical aesthetics in Sacramento
My ringer finger looks like a purple snowman - fat and bulbous between each joint - courtesy of having tripped into my house on Saturday evening. Taking every opportunity to evaluate aspects of our fair city for you, dear reader, I decided, given the fingers deepening hue and increasing size, to go for x-rays on Sunday afternoon (Happy Easter!).
I took some reading material with me, expecting a wait, though was pleasantly surprised to wait a comparatively short time (the nurse said always come in after lunch) at Mercy’s urgent care center on Folsom, just east of Alhambra. I did read this article about the importance of aesthetics in medical facilities: prettier, quieter places speed healing it seems.
Urgent care here fit the ugh-profile well: old furniture, peeling wood veneer, ugly, 80s wallpaper. Though I’m sure it was still clean, the antiquated look felt dirty too, especially where the aged showed in dings, peeling stickers, and tattered posters.
A nicer setting would be amazing and I believe it would make seeking medical help more pleasant and less scary, but I only want facilities to worry about it if it doesn’t increase costs. I don’t want more medi-cal patients going without healthcare because a doctor has to pay for the water feature in the waiting room, instead of covering what the state won’t reimburse.
But the care was speedy and the nurse was nice - I had my x-rays, found out there was no fracture and was sent home to do what I had been doing: ice, advil, and elevation.
By the way, if you’ve never thought about key-strokes per finger, you do, in fact, use your left ring-finger more than you might think in the average blog post. Time for more ice.
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Ouch! Get well soon. I’ve never been to Mercy, although they’re building a wonderful new high rise on 30th and Q.
I have to say I have often wondered about the quality of the waiting room vs. the quality of service.
UCDMC’s ER gets so much action that the seats could look "old" when they’re new. You know, vomit and things like that. SOmehow body fluids age the furniture.
You want ugh? Try going to Kaiser Morse’s "DMV waiting area" ER complete with plastic, connected chairs and stale 1965 elementary school tile floor.
I’ve spent way too much time there over the years and it’s absolutely horrible. My wife is pregnant and I can say the Kaiser Morse labor & delivery triage area should be illegal. It feels more like a county jail waiting area (not that I’ve ever seen a county jail waiting area). By the time we have our next child the Morse L&D will be shut down and a shiny new Roseville facility will be opened, thank goodness.
@Matt,
They say Kaiser / Morse is up for MAJOR remodeling, and not a moment too soon–the entire hospital feels like a medical prison–like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Sacramento style. I’ve had the (dis)pleasure of visiting ICU and the cardiac floors. Scary.
Best wishes for a happy delivery, anyway! Now’s the time for all those birthing horror stories–everyone has one, even if the baby and mother were perfectly fine. We survived (twice) UCDMC’s L&D which has been upgraded rather nicely in the last 7 years.