All I want for Christmas

Yes, it's a song, but it's chorus resounds in the Hotel.

On the floor, all most of our folks want is to go home for Christmas. As nice as it is in the Hotel with all the volunteers and goodies and Santa (we even offer some shopping), most people want to go home for Christmas.

The folks who have no one, or no real home that looks like Currier and Ives, however, want to stay with us. Someone to take care of you is a happy holiday for them.

Some folks want a diagnosis for an illness that just cropped up. One minute, you're healing up. The next, you're sick, sick, sick and no one seems to know why even after multiple consults.

My office mate and I are still awaiting things to do our job, namely window blinds. That HIPAA assuring privacy thing really is a big deal, Mr./Ms. Hospital Interior Design person. We cannot do all of our jobs without it. So we rearrange, we encroach, and we crash in other areas. This makes for some other unhappy coworkers, but we manage. 'Tis the price of improvement and remodeling the Hotel, we say.

However, my relative is asking for something big: an accessible neighborhood. One in which you can ambulate by walking, your walker or your electric wheelchair, without fear of being hit by cars on a busy street. And since it's not far from the Hotel, it matters to us, too.

The social media campaign began yesterday. The news story airs tonight.

It's a big Christmas wish, but one that really should come true. Somebody's life may depend on it.

Stay tuned...

Some things are better left unsaid

Some days I ponder the meaning of life and who the he-double hockey sticks left some of the people in Manglement at the Hotel in the management track. The bang head on desk scenario and the infamous dope slap happen far too often (or in the latter case, NEED to happen)...

Here's some recent snippets.

1. "I really don't know what you're supposed to be doing." --Boss
WTF? Hello? Did you not read the job description HR sent, nor the information I forwarded you from those Clinic Trainers about my new job, the one you're supposed to be managing and mentoring me on?

Thank heavens, after surviving the Hades of nursing school and other businesses, I am pretty good at assembling memos documenting my skills and what I'm expected to do, with Hotel corporate procedures (since I actually read the established ones) and winging it when there are none.

Just 'cause I'm nice, I'll document it for you so you can put it into my personnel file when YOUR boss comes looking for it.

2. "Do you really need an accessible office?" --Hotel Real-estate agent (aka office manager)
Well, yes, honey, I do, when you expect people with walkers, canes and wheelchairs to actually come into my office (which also needs a door BTW). A hallway with a computer in the corner, with no walls and doors, just won't cut it, especially for the folks who enforce HIPAA.

You can start by evicting that supposed secretary who does not answer the phone half the time and loses appointments when the docs give them to her. Her office (she actually has not one, but two desks in two places in the clinic) would be a great place for me.

3. "I'd never work the floor again if I were you." Nurse assistant who was talking about me moving to my new job.
Thanks dude. Should I take that as a compliment or a slap? Hmmm....So glad I'm good at that selective nurse hearing.