More thoughts on hospitals

So, not only are hospitals tricky in that they don't tell you how many floors they really have, but they are also tricky in occasionally making doors, staircases, elevators, hallways, and even information booths disappear. I find this happens particularly when there is a lot of construction going on, as there always is at the lovely Milwaukee Regional Medical Center, where Froetdert just added four floors to the north tower, and Children's just added a new wing which may actually be larger than the entire old part of the hospital. When I was on trauma we had a favorite staircase for getting from the third floor where our team room was to the second floor where most of our patients were, and one day it suddenly disappeared. Where had it gone? (The construction guys are really good with drywall) About a week later it reappeared. A whole bank of elevators also magically disappeared and then reappeared, and over at childrens, there was drywall everywhere, and then... The old, tiny corner information desk is gone forever, never to be thought of again, both because of its larger, more swoony replacement, and because you can't tell it was ever there. Very sneaky.

Froetdert also likes to be sneaky by having multiple ICUs, and moving them around. Your loved one is in the ICU? How sad, you should go visit. Good luck finding them. There's a NICU (neuro, where I'm at right now), the MICU (medical), SICU (surgical), and the CPICU, (cardiopulmonary, which is completely new, on the fourth floor, and the old CICU on the third floor is now a second PACU) Whew! I might be missing some. I'm sure there's a bunch over at childrens too, at least a NICU (neonatal in this case) and a general ICU... Anyway, not to make it even more tricky or anything, but there are five banks of elevators, but you have to be careful which ones you take, because they don't all go to all the floors (not even close). If you want to go to the lower level you have to take the C elevators. If you want to get to the new ninth floor you have to take the E elevators. The B elevators will only get you to the third floor. There is a secret second way to get to the lower level, but you can't get off there without an access card (which I have, but its not always convenient to go through the east OR)................... You see my point? Hospitals are tricky!