I was recently hospitalized at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center RiverBend for a serious condition. My stay lasted six days and, a few days later, was followed up with a trip to the emergency room when things were not going as expected.

I was able to walk and was mentally alert, so my husband and I sat in the waiting room most of the time. We were there for 13 hours before I was cleared. Was the hospital at fault? Did staff members treat me too casually? Were they uncaring or negligent?

No.

I am a retired nurse practitioner and aware medically of what was going on with me and what needed to be done. The staff was efficient, competent and good-humored. For the most part, so were those waiting in various states of distress.

The triage was efficient. But the sheer number of people to be seen, as well as the number coming steadily through the doors, was overwhelming and constant. In my observation and estimation, the staff processed a great number of people as efficiently and appropriately as possible. I saw no one who fit the category of the “worried well.”

My question is, why did PeaceHealth close the University District Hospital emergency room and hasn’t that possibly added to the glut of people? I understand that McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in Springfield is similarly crowded.

The emergence of urgent care clinics have been of little help as anyone who has been there recently can tell you. If it’s serious, needs an MRI, CT scan or even an x-ray, you’ll be sent to the hospital anyway!

Was the decision to close the University site a medical or financial one? I suspect the latter. But was it a good community decision? For a hospital that claims to be serving the community, this was surely a decision that contradicts that.

Kathy Tiger

Eugene