This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA.
One word of advice for incoming Kaiser patients: patience!
Because of understaffing, it is almost inevitable that it will take a much longer time to get an appointment than it should. For patients who have been at Kaiser long enough, we all know it can take as long as three months to get a visit to the doctor for a simple check-up. This is especially frustrating if you are a patient who also works at the hospital – you dedicate so much of your time and energy to this place, and you can’t even get proper health care yourself because of the endless wait time.
As health care workers, we know time matters for certain diagnoses and procedures. But for the hospital administration, who always seem too busy adding up their dollars, providing good health care is not their priority.
