Why does the Cleveland Clinic Suck Pt 1

I'm talking about the premier Hospital in the Cleveland OH area. Don't get me wrong, it is always listed as one of the best hospital in the country, usually only topped in the rankings by John Hopkins in Baltimore, and the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. It is commonly considered the best hospital in the country for Health Care.

So what is my issue with the Clinic?

Well, it seems that if you are just a normal person, who is only looking for normal preventative care, or minor procedures, well, you really don't matter to the Cleveland Clinic. It seems like the only way you matter to the Cleveland Clinic is if you have some ailment that they can bill your insurance company lots of money, or if you are a wealthy foreign dignitary who is making some highly publicized visit here, you just don't count. They even brag about how they treat their V.I.P. patients. I have heard that they even have a special private floor for those who have the money.

My experience was that I had a small lump on my side that was not that big of a deal, but it was extremely painful. I took two separate times off from work to see my primary care doc. Both times it was told that he didn't know what it was, but these kind of things usually just go away. Finally on the third time of taking time off from work, my primary care doc wasn't in, so I took the first available. This do was quite nice, and almost immediately said that he thought it was something that should be looked at by one of the surgeons.

So, finally three weeks later when I get in to see the guy, he pretty much agrees with the primary care doc, and said I would need to make yet another appt. to come in for the procedure that would remove the lump. So two weeks later I got in for the procedure. It went OK, but obviously was yet another day where I had to take time off from work. Once the procedure was done, the Physician's Asst. came out and told me that I would have to make yet another appt to have the stitches removed.

So, if you were counting, the Cleveland Clinic got six visits out of me, and I had to take time off from work 6 separate times. Times like these I really miss my old doc who is retired. I would like to think that he would have diagnosed it right the first time, and removed it right there in the office on the same visit.

More to come later