Yikes. Glad I didn't see this until after my hosp stay.

[kahrfreak]

PG County (MD) is a cesspool, lived there for many years. This couldn't have happened in a better place. Avoid at all costs (especially if traveling north on 301). In fact, just avoid Maryland. The seafood is just as good in Virginia, plus you can carry there with your TX CHL.

[ELB]

Jeepers, I guess I have lived a charmed life.

I have only been in a hospital for my own care three times in my life, and one of those was when I was born.

I have seen some screwups when with my wife or other relatives, and it always pays to have a SENSIBLE family member watching over you if you are the patient.

However, my visits went very well. The last one was very good, I thought almost everyone I ran into was not just good, but pushing exceptional, including the cleaning lady (and all the rest of the cleaning staff -- you could eat off the floors even in the restrooms -- not just the patient rooms, but the public ones in the hallways as well).

[drjoker]

I've worked in the healthcare field for 10 years. Bottom line: Always have someone with you as an advocate who is willing to sleep in a chair next to your bed. That person is usually a loved one, but should be someone who isn't afraid to confront medical personnel, ask obnoxious questions, and should be at least briefed on how to recognize when infection control procedures are being ignored. You may be too out of it to do these things for yourself. With the current rate of increase in resistant bacteria, it will soon be even more important to prevent infection because treating it successfully may not happen.

I work in a hospital. I'm working in the best hospital but I've also worked in a bad hospital. Yes, you should always have an advocate in the room with you. Even in the best hospitals, stuff happens. That's because they are HUGE organizations with literally HUNDREDS of people working on your case; nurse, radiologist, pharmacist, internist, hospitalist, doctor, consulting doctors, infectious disease specialist, nutritionist, janitors, assistants, assistants of assistants, administrators, secretaries, etc. The people working on your case changes several times a day, every day. They are very complex places and if an error occurs, the better hospitals will catch them due to this redundancy, but the bad ones will amplify the mistake as it goes along the chain of command. A good thermometer to see how good your hospital is: watch if EVERYONE who enters and exits the room washes his/her hands with antibacterial foam posted outside the room. If they don't do this, then they are a bad hospital. Germs can very easily transfer from one room to the next and hospitals carry antibiotic resistant germs that no antibiotic can kill (not good).