I have already filed a complaint about this with Trinity and I have already visited with their "patient advocate", but healthcare consumers in Minot really need to know about this.
I went to the clinic side of this brand new hospital at 12:15 on a Tuesday. I was dropping off some testing, and I was told to bring to the gastro department. I walked into the gastro office, which was completely empty. There was a sign sitting flat on the front desk that said "be back by 12:50."
I was flabbergasted. While standing there I called the switchboard of trinity hospital to try to figure out what to do. I couldn't stand there for 30 minutes. That's absurd. The operator told me that she could transfer me to the gastro department, and that's about all she could do. I allowed that as well as knocking on the door that leads back to the patient area. No one answered the door, and I was on hold with the gastro department on the phone for a lengthy amount of time. No answer on that either. Of course not! I was standing next to an empty reception desk! Who's going to answer the phone??
Behind the reception desk were several papers and I heard the computer receiving emails. This seems like a fairly significant HIPPA violation. The door was unlocked and the desk was unmanned. Anyone could have walked in and accessed anything behind that desk. That is unacceptable, and frightening for anyone who care about patient privacy.
I left the gastro office and walked down the hallway to "clinic operations". That office door was locked, lights off. What the heck?? No signage with any hours could be found anywhere. Again, the website doesn't state these changes in operating hours.
I finally was able to find someone at the lab, and I hope they got the test where it needed to go.
The lab person told me "yeah, a lot of the clinic closes for lunch." Again, what the heck? I understand that people need to have lunch, but there should be enough employees to schedule lunches in a way that desks are not left unstaffed during office hours!!! This is ridiculous!! Maybe have someone fill in for lunches?! Are the managers of this clinic brand new to the world of work and scheduling?
When I spoke to trinity about this I was told "yeah, some providers aren't open and some are for lunch". again, the issue is not lunches, it is the lack of staff to correctly handle lunch scheduling! There is a reason for the lack of staffing as I will describe below. Also, no provider should be "closed" during lunch if the office is advertised to be open. Correct staffing numbers would alleviate this problem.
I know several people who work at trinity and let me tell you, they are SEVERELY understaffed. Nurses, techs, CNAs, any and all front desk clerks and receptionist. All severely and sometimes DANGEROUSLY understaffed.
Why are they understaffed? Because they pay nurses, techs, CNAs and clerks crap wages. No one is going to work for $14 an hour anymore. You can make that at Walmart! That's not even enough to pay for food and shelter.
If trinity has enough money to pay out a 900K bonus to its CEO, maybe they should raise the wage for everyone else!! Doctors deserve their wage. But so do the nurses, techs and admins who keep the place running.
The higher up administrative people do not need obscene salaries when you have nurses and techs living paycheck to paycheck. Shameful. Administration is NOT working harder than these nurses and techs. No way. Make some noise about the unfairness!! This is why your care sucks. Greed.
All this to say, maybe go to Sanford instead. They are just a better clinic. I would even go so far to say to drive to Bismarck for any ER visits because trinity will not have the staffing needed.
They know we people in Minot are kind of stuck with them, due to the baffling healthcare monopoly they have in this town, but get angry. Don't allow this treatment! They will do the poorest job they can so those executives can have their millions of dollars.
DO BETTER TRINITY! Our literal lives are in your hands and you need to be better. read more
