We Love Durham NC

Duke Hospitals

All quiet on the WLD front here yesterday because I was in the hospital. All’s well now, nothing chronic or contagious.

I don’t hide the fact that we are Tarheel born and bred in this family, but I am just as big of a Duke Hospitals fan after experiencing patient care first-hand. I kept thinking, so this is what they mean by world-class care. I mean, people come from all over to get treatment at Duke (like recently Ted Kennedy).

I found the emergency room nursing staff extremely efficient and just plain good at what they do. The RN up on the ward, again, efficient, professional, and kind.

There were residents in the team of specialists, and I’m not a big fan of having to tell my symptoms over and over, but I do understand it’s a teaching hospital, and that it improves the level of care. I did feel like the residents were helping rather than just learning, of course, and I met with the head specialist as well, who did not require a recap as she had been supervising the overall plan. They took my concerns into consideration in the treatment options, and answered my questions with respect.

The facilities were clean (well, that ought to be a given), but also comfortable. They warm the blankets for you! There are plenty of other amenities like cable TV, telephone, snacks. Dinner was roasted chicken, greens, potatoes, salad, milk, iced tea, roll with butter, and chocolate-cherry cake–tasty fare (I regret I didn’t have my camera to contribute to Durham food blogging). Maybe all this is standard, but it felt like a multiple-star hotel.

Props also to Durham EMS. We’ve had Parkwood Fire out before for unrelated EMS calls, but I think this was a different squad. When I find out which team it was, I will come back and update this. Wherever they came from, they were here in a jiffy and had me stabilized and to the hospital quickly. Exactly what you want.

A big thank you to everyone involved!

5 Comments to Duke Hospitals

1. 

   Glad you’re better … but come on, you didn’t have to go to that extreme so you could blog about something unique, did you? ;-)
Steve on July 25th, 2008
2. 

   I love Durham a lot, man. :)
Valerie on July 25th, 2008
3. 

   Sorry to hear you’ve been sick, but glad to see you’re on the mend!
MrsSteel on July 25th, 2008
4. 

   Thanks, MrsSteel! All better now.
Valerie on July 25th, 2008
5. 

   I am so glad you had a pleasant experience with them. I mean, being hospitalized is never *pleasant*, but … you know what I mean. About a decade ago when I was there, I did find the nurses at DUMC to be very caring and professional.
ACW on July 26th, 2008

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