Staffer turned patient praises Urgent Care team

VCH employee and former patient Laurie Webster wrote the following letter in praise of the team who cared for her at the UBC Hospital Urgent Care Centre. We thank Laurie for sharing her feedback and we wish her good health.

In praise of the team (l to r): Lori Dover, Prab Nagra, Craig Steeves, Dr. Mike Carter and Carla Olson are just a few of the many Urgent Care Centre, lab and ultrasound staff serving patients every day at UBC Hospital.

Hi.  My name is Laurie Webster and I wanted to both acknowledge and express my appreciation for the excellent experience I had on Wed. Sept. 25th, at UBC Urgent Care.

I woke at 4 a.m. with a painful lower leg that was hot, swollen and red.  I thought about the congestion in the ER’s and decided to hang on until UBC Urgent Care opened a few hours later.

I’m a VCH employee myself, and I know what kind of pressures exist in the system, so I had prepared myself for a fairly lengthy and depersonalized experience.  It was quite the opposite.  I was particularly impressed with the excellent interpersonal skills of all the staff.  I was greeted and treated efficiently.  The staff conveyed warmth, made good eye contact, and if they didn’t know my name, they looked it up. Everyone, including the admitting clerk, the nurses (whose names escape me), the medical student (Jeff), the Ultrasound technician (Sandy) and even the young woman who drew my blood (Grace?) were extraordinarily respectful and caring.  It made me feel that they knew who I was, and it gave me confidence that I would get the best possible care.

As the day wore on, I observed them deliver the same high quality of care to everyone who came through their doors, even though it got progressively busier.  I would particularly like to commend Dr. Mike Carter, for being such a great role model.  In fact, he was the person I saw most of during the course of the day.  He never stopped moving, but he took the time to establish rapport by shaking my hand, looking me in the eye and actually listening to me with his undivided attention.  He clearly communicated the probable diagnoses and what the next steps would be.  At the same time, he engaged the medical student in a teaching discussion by the bedside, and educated us both on the probable etiology and referenced a recent study.   I particularly liked his teaching skills–treating the medical student respectfully, and encouraging him to form and explain his own opinion of a diagnosis.

There not being a lot of privacy in such a setting, I couldn’t help but hear many of the interviews with my fellow patients that day.  The same scenario happened again and again. Dr. Carter treated every patient efficiently, but with kindness and respect, and always making time to educate and to communicate clearly.  He was particularly considerate with an older First Nations woman.  Being a social worker myself, I could almost see him “changing gears”, taking the time to slow down, and make subtle changes, to interact with her in a culturally appropriate way.

For me personally, the icing on the cake was that as I was being sent home, with a plan to return the next day for the required ultrasound (bloodwork coming back OK), the nurse actually chased me down as I was going out the door, to tell me they had found a slot at ultrasound the same day.  The nurse taking the extra effort to do this was a huge benefit to me in that 1) I didn’t have to take a half day off work the next day to come back for the ultrasound and 2) the ultrasound picked up an infection, and I was able to have one day less of pain, and start the antibiotics one day earlier.

Being on the receiving end of health care for a change, it brings it home just how much as a patient you are “dependent upon the kindness of strangers.”  So to the team at UBC Urgent Care, I say “Bravo” and thanks.  You are doing a great job, and it is appreciated.