Hospital Admissions!

In the previous blog post I talked about the Hospital for Poorly Bear and Dolls; who works there, what we all do and how the hospital is run.

In this post I’d like to walk you through the admissions process.

We have two ways to admit a patient into the hospital. The first is when the owner visits us in person at the Hospital in Lyme Regis, Dorset and brings the patient in.

The second is where the patient is posted to us via Royal Mail Special Delivery. This is our recommended postal service and is the one the hospital uses when the patient has been discharged.

Whichever way you choose to get the patient to us the admittance process is now the same. We will let you know that the patient has arrived safe and well. At this point we allocate a hospital number to each patient. We use the hospital number to distinguish between the many Teds, Teddys, Edwards and Dolls!

The hospital number, owner contact number, name and email address are all logged into the admissions book. Then all of the info is put onto the hospital database, including a photo of the patient.

This happens on the day the patient arrives into the hospital. They are then transferred to the Triage ward where they wait for an initial assessment by the hospital Matron (Cheryl). This initial assessment should take place within the following 10 working days.

Matron discusses the repairs with the patient and checks this against the estimate that was agreed by the owner. If the patient has been brought into the hospital, she may need to send an estimate to the owner. She will then wait for the owner to approve the estimate.

Once all the estimates have been agreed Matron will decide who is the best Doctor to deal with this particular patient. If it is one of our specialist locums the patient will be assigned to a doctor and transferred onto the locum ward. 

The Matron will then note any additional parts that are required – eyes, noses, joints, matching fabric and begin the process of sourcing these items from within the hospital stores, or ordering them in.

For work carried out by the locums the waiting list is one to two months. A patient admitted in January will be treated during January/February. The caveat to this is if we have problems finding fabric matches. In these circumstances the lead time for repairs can be considerably longer.

If Matron allocated the Bear/Doll to Dr Dave and Nurse Lesley then an appointment slot is allocated to the patient. This is because Dr Dave’s and Nurse Lesley’s skills are in very high demand and we need to be able to allocate their time carefully. An appointment slot covers a 2-week period. This allows time for the various operations that a bear or doll might require to be carried out. The slot could be as much as 4 weeks if dealing with a fragile sheepskin bear. 

Once the patient has been allocated an appointment slot they are transferred onto a ward and will stay there with their new friends until it is time for their repairs! We will let the owner know that what the appointment slot is and when to expect the patient to be discharged.

This covers the normal admittance process but we do have emergency appointment slots as well that will be covered in a future post.