Jan 25, 2013
Called 1/24/2013 at 12:09, right in the middle of my preparing lunch for my elderly mother, who was in hospital until Dec. 24, now at home recovering from pneumonia. The woman mumbled something that I could not understand and then said something about questions about care at the local hospital where my Mom had stayed. She asked for my mother by name. I asked my mother if she felt up to talking and she said yet, although she is on oxygen and still gets winded. I had the other line and listened in. The woman kept my poor Mother on the line FAR TOO LONG, explaining something about National Survey, healthcare, blah, blah, blah. My mother just said, "I got good care at XXXX hospital. Thank you." the woman said she HAD to ask my mother these detailed questions and Mom said, "I don't feel able to answer. I got good care there." When the woman began to 'pester' my Mom and was badgering her to answer questions I cut in myself and said, "She told you she got good care. Why do you have to have her answer detailed questions? She is SICK!" The woman said more 'blah blah' and then I got rude myself and said to her, "I got a call from some other survey thing on a SUNDAY and I told them to not call back until Tues. but I never got a call. Now you are calling and you take TOO long to go about this. Just ask your questions right off the bat without all this stupid explaination! Why don't you MAIL a questionnaire to people?!" She could not respond to that, but did say she was sorry she had bothered my Mom. I told her I would tell my mother what she said but I did say that I would be writing the hospital myself when things calmed down on the caregiver front, that everything was positive and only two small things bothered me. I did not have a complaint about those things but only offered a suggestion. But since the woman couldn't ask ME, as main caregiver, questions, she didn't really do her job. Later I called the hospital in question and they do indeed use this company. But the woman at the hospital was HORRIFIED that my Mom had already been called as she knew she was recovering from pneumonia and also has asthma. She was also shocked we had gotten a call on a Sunday, plus the time of today's call was at lunch. I told her that they needed to address some things with that survey company, otherwise they might get negative responses, NOT because of bad care, but because the survey company was calling at bad times and their personnel was not trained all that well. I told her, as I did the woman who called from the survey place, that they needed to SPEAK CLEARLY so we could understand. I never could understand what her name was nor the company she represented. I could only make out something about questions about hosptial stay at XXXX hospital. i had to look at caller I.D. to get the name and number and then gave ALL that info to the rep at the hospital. The hospital is paying this company to do the survey. If they don't do things right, then that hospital will be contracting someone else to do it next time! What a lousy 'survey company'! NOT HAPPY!