This is our local hospital, so this is where we've gone for our general hospital needs. I've experienced good and bad things here.
The good:
- Their blood draw department, i.e. phlebotomists, i.e. the vampires are the best I've ever experienced anywhere on the planet. I have tricky veins that tend to jump around after they've been stabbed, so normally it will take a phlebotomist 5-6 tries at least before successfully getting a blood sample. The people here who do it all day every day with people coming through like on an assembly line are pros and stick me right the first or second time, every time.
- Their c-section surgical team - once they decide you're getting a c-section, people rush into the room and work on undressing you and getting you ready for surgery as if you were a race car making a pit stop. There's someone taking off your socks, someone else putting a hairnet on your head, someone else taking off your nail polish for the heart rate monitor to go on your finger, another person getting you into a surgical gown. It all happens all at once and you're down to the operating room and getting an epidural within 10 minutes. During the surgery everyone was very professional and concentrated. I think they were a little weirded out with the fact that I didn't talk at all during the surgery but I didn't want to distract them and risk that one of them would leave their car keys inside me or something. The recovery was not nice, and they were kind of dicks about pain medication, but the surgery was quick and efficient.
- Their after hours emergency doctor, i.e. the huisartsenpost is pretty ok. They're not great and not terrible. That's good by Dutch standards, right?
- Their plastic surgery team - after being dicked around with for 6 months by their dermatology department, my husband finally had a huge growth removed from his hand, and the surgery was quick and successful and the growth never came back. Too bad it took 6 months of being blown off and getting ineffective treatments before he could get surgery. The growth was much smaller when he first started seeing them, and in general nobody seemed to care if it went away or not. Which leads me to:
The bad:
- Their obstetrics department - If I could go somewhere else I would. I've had various bad experiences, like one ultrasound tech telling me to 'pick that up' in a disgusted tone of voice while having an ultrasound, the 'that' referring to some extra belly fat I had at the bottom of my huge pregnancy bump that she wanted to move the ultrasound wand around. I was so stunned I didn't know what to say. How incredibly rude!
I regularly had to wait 20-40 minutes in their waiting area, even though I arrived on time for my scheduled appointment. Also the wait for an ultrasound is a whole month, so by the time your huisarts says you can have an ultrasound at 3 months of pregnancy you need to wait another month before you can see your baby! That's totally ridiculous.
Once it came time to have my baby, the delivery rooms were dark and old and shabby. The waiting room was tiny, dirty, cramped and windowless. They have since built a big remodeled birthing center, so that is probably better now.
But still I felt like I was forced into a c-section and none of the doctors were sympathetic or empathetic, before during or after my pregnancy. I was terrified and nobody seemed to care. There was one awesome Irish nurse I had after my surgery recovery, but she was the only one.
- Their food selection - the tiny cafeteria on the ground floor is pretty limited. But food options in the hospital are even more limited. Boterham every day, for breakfast and lunch. Dinner was some mushy dutch potato mash or soup. It's like they tried to make it good food but instead they just made it very Dutch, which made it kind of bad. Lord help you if you have a gluten allergy and have to be hospitalized here. You would starve.
- Their dermatology department - like I said, they always did the bare minimum for months until the problem became huge and unignorable. It's like the doctors actively work against having to work.
- Their eye department - My husband had his eyes checked here, and then misplaced the eyeglasses prescription they gave him. He called and tried to get another copy and went through 3 weeks of hassle. They wouldn't let him just come in and pick it up, and insisted on mailing it. Of course they never did, and every time he called they swore it should be in the post and should arrive soon. In the end he showed up in person again and insisted on picking it up right then and there, and they told him he couldn't use it to get eyeglasses anyways since they don't measure with that much precision, so it was all for naught and he had to have his eyes measured at an optician anyways. Well good to know! It's not like going without eyeglasses is an urgent matter or anything. By all means, take your time eye department.
And I could go on, but I'm tired. You get the idea. read more
