September 10, 2008

Mr. Chuck Prosper

Chief Administrative Officer

Marin General Hospital

250 Bon Air Road

Greenbrae, California 94904

Dear Mr. Prosper,

I am writing to you with reference to an employee of the hospital, Rob Tarantino, who is employed as a tech in the emergency ward.

On August 22, on instructions from her doctor, I brought my aunt, Edith Crowe to the emergency ward with a severe case of cellulitis in her arm. She was in a great deal of pain and the woman working in admissions could not have been kinder. As my aunt has had a couple of strokes, I was taking care of filling out the paperwork when Mr. Tarantino came up to the cubicle and leaned over the top of it. In a blustering fashion he said “okay, in a nutshell, tell me what's going on”. I proceeded to explain the cellulitis and it's unresponsiveness to oral antibiotics, at which point he let out a big dramatic sigh and said, “okay, okay”' and walked off. I went back and sat with my aunt and he came along with a wheelchair. Initially he made no offer to help, but seeing me assist her, he then helped her into the wheelchair. He then put the footrest down on top of her foot. I had to put it back up and help her lift her foot onto the footrest. From his demeanor, he was clearly impatient with having to take so much time with this 86 year old two time stroke victim. As we walked into the emergency ward he asked me if I was her caregiver. I told him no, that I was her nephew. We were entertained with more of his dramatic sighs as we went to the room. When we got into the room, I told him that I had been asked by the woman at the admitting desk to come back and finish with the paperwork. I felt that this was a good time to leave them alone and give my aunt some privacy. He said “you can do that later, they can come and find you”. He then asked me to disrobe my aunt although I had made it clear that I was not a caregiver, but a relative. I told him that I would rather not, that this was his job. My aunt agreed. He said to her, “everything off from the waist up”, like he was talking to a private in the army. I helped her out of her sweater then left the rest to him. I turned and leaned over the counter to give her some privacy and after he was done, he began to berate me for looking at her records which were on the counter, telling me it was a violation. I had no need or desire to look at these records, having already provided all the information in them to the woman in admitting. I did not respond to him as his obnoxious behavior was really getting to me. He said, “did you hear me?” I replied, “yes, it's hard not to”. After he left, I tried to make light of it with my aunt, especially pointing out that everyone else there was fantastic. I made a comment to one of the nurses about his behavior and she just rolled her eyes. We clearly were not the first by a long shot to be subjected to his style of bedside manner.

Back at the front desk as I filled out the rest of the paperwork, I was very interested to see him completely transform himself with a young mother and her two children. He couldn't have been kinder or more engaging.

This unfortunately shows that Mr. Tarantino picks and chooses with whom he cares to be pleasant or rude. This luxury may have it's place, but certainly not in an emergency ward of a hospital where people are at their most vulnerable.

His callous insensitivity was certainly intentional. Perhaps he has seen too many hospital dramas and thinks he is living one. He is clearly in need of a refresher course in sensitivity training.

My aunt ended up being admitted for five days, back in her old haunt, having been an R.N. at the hospital for twenty five years. I can assure you that she never subjected anyone to the kind of treatment that she received from this man.

I thank you for your indulgence. Regards,

Richard Williams

Richard Williams

2008-09-10T15:02:35

Richard Williams