When will I ever learn?
I'm the receptionist in an out patient department at our local hospital. We treat about 45 patients a day. They come in all day long in 15 minutes slots.
We have a tv in the waiting area for them to watch until they are called back for their treatment. 80 percent of our patients are elderly and therefore the tv is up pretty loud.
So between the patients all talking to one another and the tv, it's not very quiet in there. However, toward the end of our day the last of patients are getting treated, the tv is off and it's quiet.
Today was no exception. The last patient, Mr Smith, (the names have been changed to protect the innocent) had been treated and was wheeled out in his wheelchair to the waiting area to wait for our van driver to come back and drive him home. Instead of turning the tv on and watching it until the driver came, he wheeled himself over and watched me for twenty five minutes.
Just sat there and watched me. For twenty five minutes.
So, anyway, the driver finally comes and wheels him away. I then turn to the nurse who had just come up to my desk and I ask her "Why doesn't Mr Smith where underwear?" She says "I didn't know Mr Smith doesn't wear underwear." And I say "Well he doesn't, because the whole time he sat there staring at me, 'it' was staring at me too."
And then from the depths of the silence over by the turned off tv, I hear chuckling. I'm thinking "Oh dear God, please let it be housekeeping"
I look at the nurse, blood draining from my face, I feel like I'm going to pass out. I make my way over to the OPEN area that separates my desk from the waiting area and there sits, not housekeeping, but the last patient of the day, Mr Jones. I had forgotten about Mr Jones.
I have now just broken every HIPAA (privacy act) rule that there is. Not only have I announced the patient's name but also the fact that he was going commando and 'airing out the garage'.
The real kicker is, not 30 minutes after this happened maintenance came and installed the privacy window in that open space between me and the waiting area that we have been asking for for three blessed years!