Anonymous Writes:

I wanted to express my sincere appreciation for the professionalism of your staff and for the most pleasant memories of my stay at Sherman Hospital on April 22, 2009 for several scary sounding elective procedures.

Second, my thanks go to the superb team of nurses at Sherman Hospital: Jean Miller (Pre-Op) for the friendly welcome; Jenny Myers (RN nurse) for confident and competent response to some detailed questions related to the sequence and timing of different procedures and for instilling additional confidence in me; Mary Brock (the scrub nurse) for all the behind the scenes assistance which I could observe only very briefly due to the knock-out capabilities of the cocktail administered by Dr. Patel.

Which brings me to the third component of the superior delivery of care at Sherman Hospital – Dr. Patel in charge of the anesthesia.  Are there any benchmarks for putting patients at ease before they go under the knife? When she declared that her job was to make sure that I wake up, the confidence of the delivery of this simple yet profound message put me instantly at ease.  And the cocktail she served! Was it real? Was it even legal? When I work up, I actually felt better than before the surgery. For the first time in a long time, I could fully and freely inhale through my nose and felt zero pain. I had expected the worst – to spit blood and breathe through the tube. Instead, an hour after moving out of the recovery room (thank you Leny for assistance there), I was ready to arm wrestle and to do push-ups? I was totally elated.We should all be aware of the shortcomings of the fourth component of care, the post-op building with small rooms, outdated bathrooms and old fixtures. There’s only one way to overcome these shortcomings – you have to make up with the superior care. Instead of worrying about the tiles and faucets, I focused on observing how the nurses interacted with patients, whether they truly cared. And all the shifts did their jobs with professionalism, enthusiasm and friendliness. I want to thank them for their dedication and for being a part of the great team.

So yes, I want to say emphatically that I rate my stay at Sherman at 10 out of 10. I expressed this on my departure, when I may have been under the influence of Dr. Patel’s cocktail and I am expressing it again now.

Thank you for leading a great team.