Dear Harrison Medical Center Respiratory Department,

I was late.  The reasons I was late don’t matter.

The clock on the back wall read 2:40 pm.  The brightly lit room was empty.  I peered around the corner where the coffee and ice water were served – the ice water container was full but no one was there.  A passer-by told me folks were there earlier.

I waited in the doorway 5 minutes until it was clear no one was coming back before beginning the long walk back down the hall from the Rose Room at Harrison Silverdale and out to the gas guzzler.

I have no complaints…I have questions.  In the light of the present day horrific life and death earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan, my comments and questions may seem frivolous.

20 minutes is a lot of time.  Japan’s record 9. 0 Earthquake reduced buildings into rubble in less than 20 minutes.

The tsunami that followed scooped up and destroyed miles of buildings, homes, cars and people within 20 minutes.

A doctor can see two or more patients in 20 minutes.

What could I have learned in 20 minutes had anyone been there to teach me?

The Better Breather’s meeting was scheduled for 1:00 – 3:00 pm and no one was there.  I understand RT’s respiratory time is valuable and they’re needed but I didn’t see any COPD patients there either.

Why wasn’t the meeting advertised in the Kitsap Sun?  Harrison’s MS support group meeting was advertised that same day.

1.      Kitsap County has how many  pulmonary docs?

2.      Capri is a cardiopulmonary rehab group – do they recommend Harrison’s Better Breather’s pulmonary support for their rehab folks?

3.      What is the problem?

Are Kitsap lung patients uninterested in further education in living with lung disease?  Do they already know all there is to know about lung disease?  Or, are they being ignored by the very medical community treating them?

If a support group is advertised to be available during certain hours, they should not leave early.  In the years I had a business we advertised being open until 9:00 pm and someone was always there until closing.  People knew they could count on those open hours for business.

If pulmonary patients aren’t interested in support group learning and education, there is no point in wasting valuable respiratory employee time from Harrison in meetings no one shows up for.

If the problem is getting the word out then do it!

The Old Guy and I will hand deliver flyers promoting the next Better Breather’s meeting to every heart and respiratory doctor’s office in Kitsap County – if that’s what it takes.  I will even print them out if you send me the file in something other than a dat. file.

In turn, stay open and available for the hours you state you will be there.  Regular business folks do.

I could have learned a lot in that 20 minutes no one was there.  Maybe I did.

I just learned that according to the Yellow Pages in the Kitsap Peninsula “dexknows.com”- the – to July 2011 edition- has only one M.D. is listed under “Lung (Pulmonary)” –page 417.

Doctors Clinic – Kittredge A. Baldwin, D.O. and Benjamin Sy, M.D. on Wheaton Way, Bremerton are the only pulmonary doctor’s listed – why aren’t the doctor’s off Campbell Way listed?  Did they change their specialty?

More later… Sharon O’Hara