So you think there’d be a market for this?

A few years ago, I was an anonymous restaurant reviewer for a free newspaper. It was a great gig. Three reviews per month, one of a cheap place, one of a mid-price place and one of a fine-dining house. Didn’t make much money at it, but I’d love to do it again. Alas, the publisher of the newspaper had a bee in his bonnet about what advertisers he’d accept. Remember, advertising was his only source of revenue. Predictably, the paper didn’t make it for a full year. Anyway, I established myself as a critic.

In the past five months, I’ve had the following hospital experiences:

June 14: intensive observation of a hospital emergency room (at “Hospital A:”) for a school project;

June 17 take Dad to emergency room at “Hospital B” for chest pains (the specific hospital chosen by his quack primary physician). Turned out to be a bruised rib (don’t know how he bruised it) and he was released the same day;

July 11 Mom is taken to “Hospital C” (the one closest to her, but not one I would usually choose) with multiple symptoms and dies six days later;

August 12 take Dad to emergency room at “Hospital D” with multiple symptoms resulting in ten day hospital stay followed by eight days in rehab;

September 3 admitted to “hospital E” for angioplasty, released next day;

September 16 Dad taken to emergency room at “Hospital D” by ambulance with deep vein thrombosis resulting in eleven day hospital stay followed by eleven days in rehab; and

October 24 take Dad to emergency room at “Hospital D” due to suspicion of another blood clot, turns out to be less serious reaction to anti-coagulants, return him home late that night.

So I could end up writing reviews of hospitals. Besides I’ve got lots of experience working in the healthcare system as well as graduate courses. Might as well try to find something good to get out of the amount of time I’ve spent around hospitals of late! (BTW: in Denver, St. Joseph’s, where I went on September 3, is head-and-shoulders above the rest. Dad doesn’t want to go there, though, as he’s partial to staying in the outlying areas. Arrgh.)