An Idaho hospital plans to host focus groups after a Facebook post received a flood of negative comments about its emergency care.
Local resident Cassidy Chun posted Aug. 13 on Facebook about her grandfather's emergency department experience at Rexburg, Idaho-based Madison Memorial Hospital, where she said he had to wait hours to see a physician after crushing his hands in an accident and deal with apathetic staff along the way. Her post on the Life in Rexburg Facebook group received more than 200 comments, many of them echoing similar problems with the hospital's ED.
"Madison Memorial has been an intricate part of this community for almost 75 years, so it breaks our heart to hear your experiences," hospital communications strategist Jess Goudy posted on the Facebook group Aug. 14. "While we are unable to discuss patients or their care in this setting due to our commitment to privacy, we can say we hear you. It happened to you. You experienced it. And that makes it real for us."
She wrote that Madison Memorial was forming an ED focus group made of community members and city, county and hospital officials.
The hospital planned to start sending out invitations in early September, East Idaho News reported Aug. 25. Of the previous complaints sent to Madison Memorial's official channel — a hotline — only 1% involved the ED.
"There's obviously a disconnect from people feeling or being able to voice some concerns or some issues about the care they received," Doug McBride, the executive director for business development at Madison Memorial Hospital, told the news outlet. "So that was one of the biggest things that alerted us to the idea we need to be looking at this."