Hollywood vs.The Hospital

Okay, so if BuzzFeed writer Jack Moore can get staffed on the Fox show US & THEM simply by pitching modern day Seinfeld stories via his @seinfeldtoday, maybe I can star in my own life story about the characters who surround me…

Evie Stewart Meets @ERtoday

What If…

• Abby Lockhart’s mom goes off her meds and lands in the ER, but escapes with Evie to Barneys to binge shop before Abby cancels the credit card? Keep Reading»

help!

OMG! I’m the one who needs to be resuscitated!

I get to my late afternoon shift and things are already outta control! Sunday Night Special! Patients wall-to-wall. No available beds. Missing wheelchairs, codes blasting on the PA, screamie-meemies, chest pains.  Anthony Chan’s being a bigger-than-normal pain in the ass —

VOLUNTEER, what part of “limping” do you not understand? Get my patient a wheelchair, stat!

I check the hallways, L & D, parking lots – nada, nowhere, now what?

I’ve gotta return with wheels pronto, so I head into unfamiliar territory, open a daunting door with a “Staff Only” sign and step into a brightly lit waiting area, where I discover:

Two Empty Wheelchairs!  Voila! Yay! Perfect!

Uhm… WAIT!  What’s that abandoned patient doing lying on that gurney? Keep Reading»

nightmare!

They say — “Timing is everything” but when is it gonna to be my time? The right time? Time to cash a paycheck?  Booking a job is like an oasis – it seems like it’s right there in front of me…like I’m on theverge. But when I get closer it just vaporizes into a cloud of disappointment. I feel like I’m constantly letting down the people who care about me — the ones who believe in me… it totally sucks.

I keep trying to — Keep Reading»

Prescription for a Happy Face

Health isn’t the only thing that needs to get better in Hospitals. Customer dissatisfaction is more contagious than the Flu!  Think about it. Pre-internet when a customer was dissatisfied he’d maybe tell ten people, but in the current social media world complaints broadcast to thousands… maybe millions if your YouTube hits big.

Patient Satisfaction Overhaul (Finally!)

Did you see that L.A. Times article over the weekend about how federal payments to hospitals are being tied to customer satisfaction? That’s a major topic at the hospital where I volunteer. Everyone’s suddenly scrambling to figure out ways to make sure customer surveys are filled out positively — OR ELSE!

At my hospital they hire more people to act as Liasons between the Patient’s family and the Hospital.  I guess it helps everyone navigate the system, but we could do more. Much more. A great example of Hospital know-WOW comes from Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital.

Caped Cleaners

It’s a bird, It’s a plane…

I mean how cool would it be for anyone entering the hospital to look up and see Super Hero Window Washers? Keep Reading»

No one would argue that L.A. is super COOL —  but it can also be confusing and costly. Want to experience the JOY of SUMMER without getting lost or breaking the bank? Join the club! (Hey, I should be president of it!)

Fun & Free — L.A. July-August

1. Spotify your latest and greatest, blast your sounds on your iPhone, and run your firm body (or at least firm it up on the run) along the beach where you’ll soothe your soul and breathe in fresh salty air. Ahhhh…
2. Bike along the Venice canals (between Washington Avenue and Venice Blvd.) and wind your way around bridges, quaint houses and charming gardens. (I’m an L.A. native and I didn’t even know about this gem of a neighborhood till I saw it in a movie – Truth! So crazy!)
3. On the second Thursday of the month, check out the hipsters and creatives (and oh, yeah – the art) at the Downtown L.A. Art Walk.
4. Step-up and start “Stairing” in Silver Lake or Santa Monica. It’s a great way to get tan, get in-shape and meet new friends. (Seriously, the stairs are packed with potential love interests, bffs-to-be and frenemies who should be on a watchlist, ahaha).  Keep Reading»

Working in the hospital has the side benefit of Sensitivity Training. I’m not referring to overcoming prejudices, though that’s certainly a big part of helping people. I’m talking about assumptions as in, do not make them. When I make them, they backfire.  Learn from my mistakes. 

Generalizations lead to Oops Moments —

Part of my job as an ER Volunteer is to take Patients in labor up to the 3rd Floor — the Floor for Labor and Delivery and Post Partum. It’s where we get to look through the windows and see all of those cutey-patooty-newborns in their first hours of life. And it’s a Floor where Patients usually get to take home more than just a hospital bill.  For months whenever I’d meet people in the elevator going up to the 3rd Floor  I’d say something like — Keep Reading»

Last night I went to a friend’s birthday party at Katsuya — one gigantic rectangle of people I kinda knew with a few I didn’t, including a lovely network exec whose mere presence put me back into pimply high school mode. It had nothing to do with what she did — she was warm and open — and it wasn’t because we were talking about the business —I doubt that she even knows I’m an Actress. We were just two people saying “hi” for the first time, except that one of us was behaving like a mental freak show for no apparent reason. And though I knew I wasn’t doing myself any favors, I couldn’t get out of my own way.

Sabotage Syndrome

Why do we sabotage ourselves like that? People like CONFIDENCE. Insecurity makes people nervous, uncomfortable and everything gets so awkward. This is pretty true across the board – at work, in auditions, in relationships… Keep Reading»