Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Frazier, I'm Melinda Sawyer, the patient's safety officer for the hospital. I understand you had a fall yesterday, and I'm really sorry that yours was injured. I want to take a few minutes to learn about what happened from your perspective, so that we can make sure we're doing a thorough investigation and we're trying to figure out how we make sure this doesn't happen again. So, can you tell me first about what your experience has been like in general here in our hospital? It's been horrible. It's not a great experience at all. It started with the outpatient clinic, and no one there was friendly or helpful. And I got this call that said that the appointment got rescheduled. And I had to take off too. So, we both took off where it's not easy just to take off work. So, I just don't understand how. And at the outpatient clinic, they weren't helpful at all. Nobody was friendly there and nobody looked these, a lot of language I don't even understand. So, I don't have a medical degree. How am I supposed to understand what they're talking about? I'm really sorry that it's really been an unpleasant experience for you from the beginning. I'm taking notes and I'm going to follow up with the outpatient clinic to see why your appointment got rescheduled. I'm going to talk to them about the language that they are using to make sure it's clear. So, I really appreciate you taking the time to give us this feedback. Yeah, that's the doctor, too. I had questions to ask. It was boom-boom, he just left and didn't answer any of my questions or anything. And then, the nurse handed me paperwork and out I went. Yeah, I'm really sorry to hear that. Tell me about your experience at the hospital on how you felt? I guess, the experience started when I was being prepped for my hernia surgery. And that was as bad as the outpatient clinic. And I don't know, I felt like they thought I knew what I was supposed to do, and I didn't know what I was supposed to do. But nobody really explained to me or told me anything that was going on. When you don't feel like what's going on, it's already scary enough, and I haven't spent a lot of time in hospitals. Traumatic. Yeah. So, after my surgery, I was wheeled into a room all alone, and there were a lot of people talking. I don't know what they were saying. I was pretty groggy, and then all of a sudden, I wound up in this room. And before you know it, I was alone. And then, the nurse came in and showed me some stuff, and put a cup of water over here, and I couldn't reach the water. Now, why would you put water down where, it's like it's a game? I don't think the nurses thought it was a game. But I understand your perspective. If they put water down, you need to be able to reach it. Right, you'd hope so. Then she handed me the call bell device and said if I need anything to call that, but it looked like my TV remote. So, I don't really know what was what, nobody took the time to explain anything. I kept thinking that my wife could come in and see me soon, and then it took a really long time, and all of a sudden, she couldn't come in. Nobody's telling me why, what was going on. Right, and there was no one here, and then the nurse left pretty quickly. I had to use the bathroom at that point, but there was no one here to help me do that. Then, she seemed in such a rush then. I didn't really want to stop or ask anybody because it didn't seem like they want to be bothered with that. I don't want to be annoying either. What happened after that? I blinked and I tried to drink the water again, and I couldn't really reach it though. And it's further away. I was just too tired to really even try to get it. And I still had to use the bathroom, so I know my call device fell off. I was trying to think about exactly, I know the call, it fell off. There's a bow over here on the side, and I tried to use that, and I kept pressing, and pressing, and nothing happened there. So, I dragged the call device back by the cord, and then pulled it back, and then nobody came. I kept hitting that, nobody came. I was just pretty tired. I felt pretty weak. And I figured, I felt like I can make it to the bathroom somehow. So, I wanted to navigate my way around the bed, and I pulled the IV pull over because I knew I had to take that with me somehow. So, I figured I got to do something because I don't want to go on the bed either. This makes me so upset. I'm actually a nurse, I used to work in this hospital, so I know this hospital is a great place. I've worked with so many great people and I'm just really upset that he fell through the cracks. Well, and then I pulled the IV over to use the bathroom over there, and the cords, they're really long, I didn't know how long the cords were. And then, I don't know, it was dark in the bathroom. I was reaching for the light switch, and then I fell, and the next thing you know, I'm on the floor, and the IV crashed, and then there's a sound everywhere, and then all of a sudden, a couple people come running into the room. Had I known that, I'd knock the IV over an hour before when I needed some help. Maybe that's the call button, it sure seems like it. What if he had hit his head? He certainly could have if he fell. Yeah. I'm grateful, he didn't. And I didn't though, I didn't hit my head. I feel okay other than my wrist is a little sore, but I didn't. But it just hasn't been a good experience. When they came in and they helped me up, ushered me back in bed. I have to say though, in all that, all the people, not one person asked if I was okay. No one, they don't seem to care. It doesn't surprise me. To be honest, I'm debating a lawsuit. I don't know. Well, I just want you to know that it did get reported right away. I've actually already talked to the nurse who's involved, the attending, the resident. I'm going to talk to some of the senior executives here. And I really want to talk to you because it's important when we're trying to figure out how to make this better that we talk to everybody who's been involved, and that's why I really wanted to take this time. We take it very seriously. And so, it's important to us to hear your perspective. And then, what I will do is after I get everybody's summary, and we figure out what we're going to do, I will get back to you and let you know what we're doing differently so that we can prevent this from happening to other patients. So, you should at least be assured that we're looking into it and we're making changes based on the experience you have. The one other thing is, had my wife been able to come in or somebody would at least told her, then she probably could have helped out with that stuff. Or at least going to get a nurse. Right. Yeah, or helped him. Yeah. Yeah, we definitely could have been better. I mean, you're our partners, and you could helped us. Together, we could have kept everybody safe, kept you safe. So, we did really miss that opportunity. Ms. Frazier, is there anything else from your perspective that you think we could have done differently? I mean, basically, everything that Chris has said, I'm so upset. Usually, he's the calm one. But I think we're both pretty rattled from this experience. I can see why. I'm probably less upset because, like I said, I feel like I'm okay, and my wrist hurts, surgery, whatever, but had it been the flip side, then that would have been her sitting in the bed, I'd be pretty upset, too. So, I understand where she's coming from. Like I said, I'm going to wrap up our investigation of this in the next day or so, but I will get back to you and be very clear about what our next steps are, so you know that the hospital is responding to this and that we're going to make some changes. So, I appreciate your time, when you're recovering not only from your surgery, but your wrist being hurt, taking the time to talk to me. Thank you. Thank you.
