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Eye and Ear on the Park, Eye Clinic service and outlook

Posted By Left cat eye

"Eye and Ear on the Park, Eye Clinic service and outlook"

About: The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital / Specialist Clinics (Eye and Ear on the Park)

(as the patient),

I have had four retinal detachments in my left eye, so I’m coming to Eye and Ear on the Park regularly for control checks. I get dilating eyedrops on both eyes, making it hard to see, and now the floor of the ward is black, and the tables next to the chairs are black, so there is no contrast, and I keep hurting my legs (tibia) every single time.

What I’m asking is very simple, change the colour of the tables, a bright colour.

One more thing - as there are so many people, the doctors call outpatients from different places. If they are too far I can’t hear them, there is no estimated time to know when will my turn be, I get a lot of anxiety, and I get stress and reflux from it. 

Instead of making the doctors scream the name of the patient, and look for them everywhere, just put speakers in the room that says something like “Patient [Name] please proceed to room 2C” or “[Name], please proceed to the reception” or give a number to every patient and ask for the number.

One last thing, thanks for removing the TV screens from the front desks. It was an ironic idea to provide visual entertainment to those who have a visual problem, I believe it was very disrespectful and discriminating. A different form of entertainment can be provided, radio is an option, music as well.

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Responses

Response from The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital 5 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital

Submitted on 11/12/2018 at 10:01 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 11:04 AM

Dear Left cat eye

Thank you for taking the time to write about your experience at Eye and Ear on the Park. This year we have been working on improving the environment in our specialist clinics. We have laid new carpet as the old one was heavily stained, repainted the walls, added more signage and redesigned the layout to allow for more space.

Thank you for your suggestions, they really do help shape our improvements. We will look at the tables and see what we can do to make a more obvious contrast.

In regards to your comments on not always being able to hear your names called, we have investigated installing a PA system or numbering system in the waiting room, but unfortunately that is not possible in our current location due to its size and configuration. However, we will be able to make improvements in the redeveloped hospital site and your feedback helps feed into these. What we have done to help with this issue is to limit patients entering the waiting room to 15 minutes before their appointment time and we suggest to patients that they sit in the allocated seats nearer to where the staff will be calling their name. Volunteers and clerks are also helping by repeating patient names for the staff and pointing them in the direction of patients.

We are pleased to hear that you liked the removal of the televisions, unfortunately adding music or radio would create more noise and therefore counteract the improvements we are trying to make in reducing noise.

Once again thank you for your post and please keep on telling us how we can improve.

Kind regards

Siobhan

Communications Team

Update posted by Left cat eye (the patient)

Hello Siobhan

Very clever to put your accomplishments first before replying to my story, nonetheless, this only diminishes my story, my opinion and my experience as a patient.

Thank you for reading my story. Your response only tells me that you (The hospital) won’t do anything, changing the colour of the tables (or the tables if needed to) is achievable in a short time; speakers can be allocated everywhere, regardless of size or configuration as sound waves propagate everywhere, actually the configuration of the waiting area gives great acoustics,

What you have done to solve the issue, telling patients to be there 15 mins before,tells me that, this issue is over a year and a half old and has not been solved, plus there are three possible corridors where nurses or doctors may call the name, and it is never told what corridor a patient should be waiting for, as the waiting area is commonly full, an available seat may be far away, so next time should I sit on the floor? Next to the corridor where I believe I will be called? This is the reason why I see doctors and nurses walking around screaming names and getting frustrated if the patient is not there, this is wasting the doctor's time, nurse's time and also patient's time. One more thing, I have not seen a single time a volunteer nor a clerk repeating names in the waiting area, I have seen them in the entrance, guiding people, but not in the waiting area.

I’m not asking for more doctors to reduce waiting times, as that is hiring new people and that is complicated, I’m not asking to send an SMS to the patient smartphone when the doctor or the nurse is about to call their names, what I am asking for is to purchase low maintenance objects that will improve everyone’s experience so our waiting time will be more bearable.

Response from The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital 5 years ago
The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital

Submitted on 12/12/2018 at 4:35 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 5:40 PM

Dear Left cat eye

Thank you for providing me with this added information about your concerns. I’m sorry to hear that your experience has not met your expectations. Please be assured that we take all feedback seriously and will use your feedback to help improve the environment in our Specialist Clinics waiting areas for you and for all of our patients. In response to your feedback we have already begun planning improvements to the tables to increase the colour contrast between them and the carpet.

If you would like to speak with a member of our staff about your concerns and feedback, please contact our Manager of Planning & Patient Experience, Renee Chmielewski, either via email: renee.chmielewski@eyeandear.org.au or via phone: 9929 8946.

I hope that any future experiences you have in our hospital are positive and that they meet your expectations.

Kind regards

Siobhan

Communications Team

Update posted by Left cat eye (the patient)

Hello Siobhan

Thank you for taking my feedback seriously, and providing the Manager of Planning & Patient Experience information

Kind regards

Left cat eye

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