Compassionate care in medicine everyone deserves at Portland's newesthospital

[caption id="attachment_20471" align="alignleft" width="224"] Compassionate care[/caption]

Carol Forsloff---“All of us were trained to be warm, pleasant, open and comforting,” a young nursing assistant declared at a Portland hospital on a rainy afternoon. “We were told this would be the best, and that we would be part of something special. And we're glad to see our hopes come true for us, our patients and their families.” A patient's visit to Portland's newest and most modern hospital reminds us that humanitarian medicine is the best for anyone.

[caption id="attachment_20478" align="alignright" width="224"] Nursing assistant[/caption]

No one wants to be hospitalized, for it can be a frightening experience. It is even worse if the initial trip is to an emergency room. But the experience is softened by the type of staff and surroundings that greet patient and family the moment they enter Kaiser Westside Hospital.

The people of West Portland waited many months for the day the new hospital would open, as it did just two months ago. And the promises made from Kaiser that it would be state-of-the-art in compassionate care and quality has more than come true from the emergency personnel to the hospital aid and cafeteria staff.

[caption id="attachment_20474" align="alignright" width="300"] Kaiser emergency administrative support[/caption]

Experts tell us patients should have pleasant surroundings that enhance wellness. Many of America's hospitals retain the bleak, drab walls and musky air that greet visitors who shudder and hope they might never have to visit let alone become a patient.  But that's not the Kaiser way.

[caption id="attachment_20473" align="alignnone" width="225"] Kaiser hospital hallway[/caption]

At Kaiser's Westside Hospital, however, the soft pastels and captivating art reach out in welcome at the very entrance and continue through the hospital, including the cafeteria.

[caption id="attachment_20475" align="alignright" width="224"] Kaiser cafeteria[/caption]

Patient rooms have television sets, but they have even more technology to delight a patient whose distress has periods of awakenings when having something absorbing to do can be helpful in that journey toward wellness. The television swivels at the patient's bedside, with a keyboard that transforms the television to a computer screen. A comfortable lounge chair for guests and a daybed with soft blankets and pillow for a family stay offers the ultimate level of that compassionate care evidenced by Kaiser staff.

[caption id="attachment_20476" align="alignnone" width="225"] Patient's room[/caption]

It's the kind of care that everyone deserves, as the nation considers its health care options and worries about the future.

It's a late evening journey home with the promise of return to the hospital at daybreak for a wife to visit a husband ill, but at the same time a measure of calm and trust within, knowing that someone cares.