Hospital service suffering

Hospital service suffering

When my elder son received a minor head injury, we were
referred to the International Bintaro Hospital (RSIB) for a CT-
Scan by the pediatrician.

Before going to the hospital on Saturday morning (Jan. 30,
1999), I called its information desk to see whether they accepted
Amex cards for payment. Unfortunately, my phone call was
transferred several times, before being answered by a lady.
Strangely, she did not give any firm answer, but hung the phone
up. It happened again on my second attempt to call the hospital,
as I was transferred several times, before ending up with the
same lady. And she hung up the phone this time too. As my son
badly needed to have the CT-Scan, I called the hospital a third
time. I immediately told the receptionist not to transfer my call
any further, and asked whether the hospital could accept Amex
card. He confirmed that they could accept the card for payments.

We rushed to the hospital immediately. At the information
counter, a receptionist referred us to the clinic registration
section. After waiting for quite some time there, unfortunately,
the lady at the registration desk informed us that we were at the
wrong registration counter, and then escorted us to radiology
registration on the other side of the building.

When we registered at this counter, we discovered that the
hospital could not in fact accept Amex, and we were asked to pay
by other means. Although we explained that the information desk
confirmed that we could pay by card, the lady could not help, nor
did she try to apologize in any way.

After registering, we were asked to wait for some time, before
being asked to enter the radiology area, where we waited further
for the CT-Scan. However, fortune was not on our side that day.
When seated in front of the CT-Scan room, my other son was
injured by some nails sticking out from the chair he sat on. We
called for the staff, but they did not make any attempt to help.
I reminded them that radiology was next to the emergency room,
which should have a first aid kit of some sort.

Then a man came in to see what had happened. However, he also
did not try to help my wounded son or try to apologize, but was
very defensive, saying that such accidents from chairs were
extremely rare.
Is that the service to be expected from a person I later
discovered was a physician, and also part of the hospital's
management team?

I would advise those who plan to visit the International
Bintaro Hospital to think twice.

FERDY MADIAN

Jakarta