Photo: ThisEastSide
New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center can’t be knocked for quality of doctors, nurses or other medical providers. But its customer service borders on dismal.
First time I came to see a patient still in recovery after major surgery, the expressionless, charmless security officer at the visitor’s desk said “second floor” and nothing else. I was reminded of those stone heads on Easter Island but naively thought I had information enough. I found an elevator, which left me in a huge warren of long, poorly marked corridors, A, B, C, D and so on. I wandered around asking for the recovery room. The badged workers I accosted in the hallways tried to be helpful, but they had no idea. Finally, one suggested I go back to the visitor’s desk on the first floor and start all over.
I felt my way to an elevator going down and exited through the Emergency Room. OK. I went outside and walked back to the Main Entrance. I went to the visitors’ desk and demanded more details. Turned out, the patient was on the third floor, not the second, and this time I was given a corridor letter, G. I again wandered around corridor G, third floor but finally came upon the proper recovery room and visited a patient who wondered where I had been all this time.
Half hour waits just to get a visitor’s pass.
That night the patient was moved to a regular room. When I arrived the next day to take him home, the line at the visitor’s desk wound down the hall. There was only one officer at the desk, and it took half an hour to get to her. All we needed was a pass and a room number. I was not alone in my frustration.
New York hospitals, this one in particular, would do well to spend less money advertising for patients and more on basic customer service.