Story of the Day 1/ 30/ 2014

At a bit past two in the afternoon, the phone rang.

I answered it, correctly this time. I said, "Good afternoon!"
I have this sad tendency to say , "Good morning" up until close to dinner time, so I , at least, was impressed by my acumen.

There was a pause.
Of course, what went through my mind was " robo-call." But I was wrong.
A slightly confused sounding man asked," Is this a residence?"

"Yes."

"I am conducting a survey for St. Vincent's Hospital. May I please speak with Sarah Green?"

"This is her mother. You have her name wrong. Would you care to try again?"
I was not so much being intransigent as being careful. The hospital ought to have her name right. Maybe this wasn't really them.

He starts to spell it.
They have given him a truncated form of the last name- very truncated, but it is the kind of thing that a computer will do, or a senseless person. And he had simply tried to say what was left of it that was sayable.....

I explain that her last name has been truncated, but that he is looking for my daughter, however, "She can't speak with you."

I explain that Sarah is Deaf. Deaf as in doesn't speak on the phone, but that I could provide an alternate method of communication for her.
( I , of course, was thinking of email or texting via cell phone- those wonderful technological miracles of the last century.)
I tell him that she is at college, and in class , right now, but should be available later.

There is a moment of silence.
He replies, somewhat shaken, " I will just mark that as she has moved."

"She hasn't moved, this is her permanent address. Would you like an alternate way to contact her?"

He didn't.
He has lost all desire to ask her any survey questions.
Her being deaf is too much for him to deal with. He says goodbye and hangs up.

Now, I understand that this guy is a poorly paid, untrained person calling for a business that does surveys, but he just made the hospital come off as a snotty place that has zero regard for their Deaf patients.
Apparently, these Deaf patients are not even worth contacting for a survey to find out how their experience was.

Considering the fact that the Deaf often are treated worse by hospitals and medical offices in terms of being treated as if they are an annoyance for requiring an interpreter, or being told "Can't you bring relative with you to do that?" or being provided with interpreters who are less than well trained, and then the patient is not sure if the doctor is speaking down to them ( adding insult to injury), I would think that they could at least try to get their opinion on a survey.

I wasn't the patient, but , if they opt to ask me I will tell them that they failed whatever test this was.
A big fat zero, since they didn't even try.







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