I'll take you on a quick tour around the Clinic (which we designed ourselves). Oh, if you are wondering about the nifty gadget little Jasmine is looking at, its called a Gravitron and I will tell you all about it a little later.
We have tried to steer clear of the traditional HDB clinic look (although we are a HDB clinic) by having warm colours in the waiting room. I personally feel that patients should not have to wait too long to see the doctor. But at times, it just can't be helped. So the best alternative is to provide a comfortable waiting area for the patient.
See, I personally handpicked these chairs from Celine designs so that our friends can sit comfortably while watching TV. And by the way, we don't show ads on the LCD screen. You would be bored to death. No, you get to watch whatever is on the Air. We had a great time during American Idol!
This is our treatment room. You can see the autoclav and the ECG machine in the corner. The treatment room is a second room we use for patients needing the nebuliser or other treatments. It is also used to monitor patients, like when your child has a high fever. We will put the family in the room and teach them how to sponge the child to get the temperature down.
Don't like kids to be bored. So they get to play with my pinball machine while they get their ventolin neb.
Worse thing about an elbow dressing is that it comes off too easily! So we invest in the extra netting to make sure the dressing stays put.
I like all these modern dressing materials like this Alginate Hydrocolloid Dressing which is excellent for ulcers and clean superficial wounds. The gel like dressing sticks well, is moldable and you can bath with it on. Of course these special dressings are a little more expensive. So patients are always given a choice if they want to use them or not.
We also stock Plaster of Paris in case of emergencies. The Plaster of Paris is used to make a backslab in case of a suspected fracture.
This is the way to wrap a finger! Neat and nice.
OK, let's move to the Dispensary. We keep both generic medications as well as all the branded stuff here. Patients are always given a choice as to whether they want the generic product or the original product. The general principle is to keep costs as low as possible, so I usually prescribe the generic medications unless I feel that the condition requires something better.
Everybody is scared of injections! We try our best to make injections as painless as possible for the children by applying a local anaesthetic cream and also to distract them with gadgets like the Gravitron. (I promise I will tell you about it)
At last we come to my favourite room. My room of course. This is where I do all my consultation work as well as my Blogging work. We have designed the room so that it is spacious enough to accomodate the whole family including the grandparents. I love it when everyone is inside the room. I make sure that Ah Gong and Ah Ma have a nice sofa to sit while waiting for the grandkids to be treated.
Here are some of my gadgets that are worth mentioning. The Pulse Oximeter is a device that measures the Oxygen saturation of the patients blood. In short, it gives me an extra piece of information pertaining to the severity of the patient's respiratory condition. It is especially useful in conditions like Asthma and Bronchiolitis where a low saturation score may mean an immediate evacuation to KK hospital. On the other hand, a 100 percent saturation score is very comforting for parents whose child is coughing incessantly.
Another gadget I have in my room is this one which helps me decide on whether to use antibiotics for a certain condition. The beautiful thing is that it only requires one drop of blood and within 5 minutes, the results are known. It does not replace the full blood count, but it does provide extra information for the parents and I to make a clinical decision.
Now we come to the fun part. Kids nowadays are very smart. You can't entertain them just by giving them an old stuff toy and a sweet anymore. No you have to show them something that they have never seen before. These Disney Cubees are only available from Disneyland and most children won't have seen them. At the press of a button, they sing a tune and the face clicks. Stack them together and they sing in parts!
At last we come to the Gravitron! This one never fails to mesmerize the kids and most of the time, the Dads as well. How does it work? Well, you spin it like a top and the magnets in the spinning top and the base repel each other, keeping the top spinning in midair. It can go for several minutes if done properly! Like Magic! This one I usually keep for the most difficult kids!
Well, that is the end of the clinic tour! Do leave a comment and tell us what you think!
Probably the second most frequently asked question after "How long before I get better?" is the question, "Why is your clinic called Karri?
