Sonoma Valley Hospital – glad it’s here

Editor:  I grew up in a big city, have been a health care professional all my working life and have always received my health care in a major medical center starting with Duke University and most recently, UCSF.  I was excited to move to this small town with my husband but had misgivings about health care and planned to keep my care in San Francisco.

Getting pneumonia just in time for Christmas relieved all my concerns and turned out to be a real Christmas present.  My doctors have always seen patients about one day a week.  After only an initial visit, Dr. Liu saw me when I got sick, saw me again and again and managed my excellent care in the hospital.  Her credentials are impressive.  Sonoma Valley Hospital had everything I needed to be well cared for:  good nursing staff and good respiratory therapists, well equipped rooms, complete laboratories and X-ray facilities, acute care and a skilled nursing facility as I got better.  The experience of being in the hospital was very positive.  The pace was slow enough for people to be personal and kind.  Visiting hours were according to need more than the clock, dietary answered the phone and made requested changes, everyone spoke encouragingly and answered my questions.  Was the experience perfect? No, it was human, humane and competent.  And I cannot imagine that I would have received better care anywhere else.

What I have realized from this experience is that medical centers are irreplaceable for research and organ transplant, conditions that are hard to diagnose, and treatment of exotic disorders.  I saw all of this as a doctorally educated nurse.  But living in this community, I had much more commonplace pneumonia and might in the future need a broken bone repaired or diagnostic tests or care for other asthma related problems.  And when I do, I will be grateful for Dr. Liu and Sonoma Valley Hospital for being able to meet (competently and kindly) my needs for the ordinary care of this ordinary aging person.

Louise Trygstad APRN CS DNSc
Professor Emerita, USF School of Nursing
Sonoma