Hospital Communication

Excellent question. Administrators that patients will most likely encounter are those in the records departments, receptionists, lab personnel, etc. There are many, many administrators -- a good number of whom are nice and easy to get along with. For these types of administrators, communication is easy. It is important to be polite and cooperative.

However, if there is an unsavory administrator, such as someone in the records department refusing to send records to a particular doctor (even after you have given your permission), then you have the right to employ what I term civil disobedience and speak up. Assert yourself to that administrator and refuse to be bullied. Report him or her if possible.

Do not tolerate abuse; if an administrator is badgering you or is uncooperative with your reasonable needs, then you need to speak up. I have refused to cooperate with unreasonable personnel. In one case, during a particular hard time in my medical life, a receptionist called me up to her desk and announced in front of everyone in the waiting room that I owed money.

I told her that I did not want to discuss this issue now, as I didn't know whether I had a recurrence of cancer. I also told her that she was never to talk with me like that again.

It really does depend on how administrators treat you. Be polite at first, but then speak up if you sense an injustice is being done to you. Excellent question. Administrators that patients will most likely encounter are those in the records departments, receptionists, lab personnel, etc. There are many, many administrators -- a good number of whom are nice and easy to get along with. For these types of administrators, communication is easy. It is important to be polite and cooperative.

However, if there is an unsavory administrator, such as someone in the records department refusing to send records to a particular doctor (even after you have given your permission), then you have the right to employ what I term civil disobedience and speak up. Assert yourself to that administrator and refuse to be bullied. Report him or her if possible.

Do not tolerate abuse; if an administrator is badgering you or is uncooperative with your reasonable needs, then you need to speak up. I have refused to cooperate with unreasonable personnel. In one case, during a particular hard time in my medical life, a receptionist called me up to her desk and announced in front of everyone in the waiting room that I owed money.

I told her that I did not want to discuss this issue now, as I didn't know whether I had a recurrence of cancer. I also told her that she was never to talk with me like that again.

It really does depend on how administrators treat you. Be polite at first, but then speak up if you sense an injustice is being done to you.