cdl.me

This is an idea for a blog I had last year. At the beginning of the year I was in hospital 3 weeks in 2 months and I hated it. I spent a lot of time wondering how they could make it better. Here’s what I came up with.

1. Make the rooms nicer/more private

This was one of the things I hated most about hospitals. Most of the rooms had 4 beds in each, with just a curtain to close you off from the rest of the people. This was fine, I mean, it’s free healthcare so I don’t expect too much fancy stuff. The thing I had the biggest problem with was nurses/doctors coming in, opening the curtain all up, then leaving without closing it. I am sick, I don’t want people to see me! Close my damn curtains!

This even extended to when I had a private room. They would come in, open the curtains so everyone walking by outside could see me, then leave my door open. LEAVE ME ALONE TO REST!

2. Don’t wake me up super early/late

This was a super big problem. I’d just be falling asleep and BAM, there’s a nurse asking to take my temperature. I get that you have to do this every few hours, but just don’t wake me up to do it. I know it can be done, I had a few amazing nurses who would do it so I wouldn’t wake up once. They were the best.

But the worst was when I was waken up in 5 in the morning to give me breakfast. BREAKFAST AT 5 IN THE MORNING! I don’t even want to be awake at 5 in the morning. Then, if I didn’t wake up they would TAKE MY BREAKFAST AWAY SO I GOT NOTHING! WHAT IS THIS! Give me breakfast at a NORMAL time.

3. Better entertainment

When I was in hospital, a lot of the time it was for observation, so I was still able to get up and walk around. I would have been able to go out if the hospital wasn’t basically a prison that forced me to stay there, and all I had to do all day was a tiny TV that I had to pay $5 a day for and all it had was free-to-air TV, so it was just shit. Why not put in bigger TV’s? With the money they were making off the TV’s they could surely afford some good sized LCD’s, or change to a movies-on-demand service. Make it at least worth my while.

Also, they desperately needed wifi in there. The only internet they had was downstairs, tucked away, on a shitty old Windows XP machine and that costs $2 or so an hour. I could just surf the net on my phone, but they have some kind of thing that blocks my signal, because I never had more than 1 bar when I was in there.

The point is, if it’s somewhere people have to spend so much time in, make it less depressing. That way when you say “You have to stay in hospital overnight” people will be less “Ugh, can’t I just keep this cancer and die” and more “HOORAY!”