hey! thank you for the answers on the last question, it was extremely helpful and I appreciate it tons! now this one is probably really obvious but thankfully I’ve never been in this situation before.
you go to the hospital, say who you’re visiting, the staff says to have a seat in the waiting room. now, excuse my ignorance here, but how does the doctor or nurse know which person to go to out of all the people in the waiting room when the visitor did not come in when the patient was admitted?
If you are asked to take a seat because the doctor is in with the person (Bob) you want to see, after he leaves the room the nurses station should be notified. Then someone from the nurses station will (should) come and get you. If theydon’t know who to get they will ask who is waiting to see Bob.
If it is just after an incident the Doctor may come out and ask for the family of Bob.
Okay, maybe I misunderstood the question, but when I’ve been in the waiting room because I’ve accompanied someone to the hospital (and I’ve been in this sitch many, many times), and the doctor or nurse or chaplain or someone comes to get me, they stand in the door of the waiting room and address everyone in there in one of several possible ways. (I’m female. If you’re not, swap out genders appropriately.)
If you are married to the patient, they’ll just say, “Mrs. Smith?” and wait for someone to respond.
If I’m Miss Jones, a friend of the patient, Mr. Smith, they’ll say:
2a) “Miss Jones?” (they know my name because it says on the paperwork “Miss Jones is here with Mr. Smith”).
2b) “Miss Jones?” (Mr. Smith is conscious and he told the doc or whoever my name)
“Smith Family?” or “Who is here for Mr. Smith?”
If you have left the room and this inquiry happens in your absence, when you come back, the others in the waiting room will say, “The doc was looking for you.” This is why you must bring water with you to the waiting room and never leave the room, because as soon as you leave to get a drink of water, I promise you, the doc will take that moment to come and look for you. And if you’re not there, it will be hours before he comes back, if ever.
Once I left, and when I came back, everyone said, “Oh, the chaplain was looking for you.” Sadly, the chaplain came back soon after to tell me my husband had had a heart attack during surgery. He was in the ICU for 10 days and did not recover.