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Polite, serene behaviors at local hospital point to civilized citizenry not often noted
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“Excuse me, where is the hospital’s registration hall, please?” I asked a security guard at Zhongshan Hospital on Monday, after I got off a taxi that dropped me near the expansive hospital’s inpatient department.
The guard, in his 50s, leaned forward to me politely to understand my question. He then patted my shoulder gently and pointed the way: “Go straight ahead, turn left at the crossroads, and there you are!”
Assured, I sashayed to the registration hall. But, alas, it was so crowded — no less crowded than the ticketing hall of a typical Chinese railway or bus station. It took me a few minutes to compose myself in the crowd.
I had a quick look before I moved around. There are eight windows for patients or their relatives to register to see a doctor. It was a bit past 1pm when I arrived — not a peak hour — and five windows were open, each witnessing a long line of about 20 meters. To my surprise, no one jumped the queue, no one spat, and no one yelled, as one would see in a typical crowd in China.
As I glanced around, I saw why. Two female guides were sitting in a booth near the queue lines, effectively directing all patients or their relatives to where they should go to get registration done as quickly as possible. On top of that, a younger lady moved from one queue to another to answer impromptu questions on the spot. And not very far from the queuing area, there was a long line of chairs for people to rest.
I darted toward the booth, got my answer, and then waited in the long line outside the eighth window. My turn came in only 20 minutes, much faster than I had expected. The next three hours would find me darting between labyrinthine wards under the courteous direction of security guards and professional guides employed at the hospital. Doctors and nurses passing by also helped me nicely as I asked them about directions and procedures.
Two things impressed me most.
First, an ATM-like machine. After you have successfully registered for a certain senior specialist or a general practice physician, you swipe your medical card to get a digital number for waiting. Many patients or their relatives, especially first-timers, don’t know how to use it.
On Monday, I saw a nurse and her aide always standing by such a machine, helping people swipe their cards. That reminded me of a bank’s ATM or a Metro’s entrance/exit machine, whereby few professionals stand to help one in need. Zhongshan Hospital could save on labor costs by leaving patients or their relatives to the care of a cold machine, but the hospital managers instilled a warm atmosphere by installing two professionals beside each machine.
Smiling security guard
Second, a smiling security guard. By 1:45pm, the crowd of patients in a ward on the eighth floor began to lose shape, as a few people walked astray and blocked the central passage. At this moment, a grinning guard in his 50s approached them, patted their shoulders gently, and murmured to them: “Would you please move to this side? Thank you.” Without feeling offended, a couple of men moved accordingly, unblocking the central passage.
In this age of media-hyped tensions between patients and doctors, such serene scenarios in a crowded hospital like Zhongshan — which happen day in and day out — seldom go to the press. This is not to say Zhongshan is perfect, but it does offer us food for thought over how to ease the worries of patients and, in a broader sense, how to manage a crowd.
After all the queuing hours, I accompanied my wife to our doctor’s room. Zhu Wei, the senior doctor, greeted us with a smile and checked my wife carefully. We had thought that a small surgery might be necessary for her benign tumor, as was the case my wife had 10 years ago in Beijing. But Zhu suggested we wait and see if we could let nature take its course.
In contrast to many other hospitals that prefer surgeries (to make quick bucks), Zhongshan did something different. I do not know the whole story, but in Zhu Wei I saw a spirit, that is, serving the patients with conscience.
We now live in a media-made world of medical scandals — from doctor-patient tensions to drug kickbacks, but if all the patients or their relatives who went to Zhongshan Hospital on Monday bothered to write a small article such as this one, the real world would see a different, though not a perfect, picture.
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