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Methodist Hospital rolls a lucky seven with Park Slope Parents

By Zeke Faux
for The Brooklyn Paper

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New York Methodist Hospital has pacified the famously irascible Park Slope Parents.

In response to a litany of complaints about emergency care posted on the popular Web site last month, the Seventh Avenue medical center invited angry stroller-pushers to air their grievances in a public meeting on Wednesday night — and even the harshest critics walked away satisfied.

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Hospital administrators stood by their ER docs, but told the seven parents who showed up that they were working to train waiting-room staff to resolve conflicts better.

The hospital said it is also hiring a new nurse to handle minor injuries.

“We want to get the same kind of caring, empathetic vision from [waiting-room staff] as we already get from our doctors,” said Robert Van Amerongen, Methodist’s head of the pediatric ER.

Van Amerongen recommends that parents at least attempt to contact their pediatrician before bringing tykes to the hospital, to avoid the long ER waits which are sometimes unavoidable and always unpredictable.

“There’s no way to know for sure when you’ll be seen,” said ER director Josef Schenker, who explained that the hospital tries to attend to patients in order, but that urgent cases must be treated first.

The docs’ candid approach went over well with the parents at the meeting.

Ilse Knecht, a mother assigned to cover the meeting for the Web site, said that “it sounds like they know the problems, and the system they’re putting in could address the issues.”

— Zeke Faux

©2009 The Brooklyn Paper

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