It’s plausible, I guess, for the next of kin to return to the hospital and not know that their loved one’s been moved to another unit. I can even accept that a hospital’s information system might temporarily be down (evil, evil technology!). What I can’t imagine is a hospital visitor, being directed to the fifth floor, asking “are the elevators working?” It’s kind of a given. Darin’s stupid, unnecessary question gets the slit-eyed, mock-polite, passive-aggressive reply it so richly deserves.
24 thoughts on “Now I.C.U., Now I Don't”
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Son of Stuck Funky 
So the hospital receptionist is as big a d*ck as Les…
I like this employee. She’s already so beaten down with the misery and woe of the world. No question can be answered without icy stares and passive aggression.
She’d make a good third wife for Les.
Sigh. I was really hoping for a break from this Boy Lisa crap today. The guy is a blithering idiot, plain and simple. He’s about as entertaining as watching a lawn die and he has all the personality of a broken slab of asphalt. Why Batom Inc. ever decided to bring him back is a mystery to me, he’s so boring, bland and stupid he ought to be regulated as a sleep-aid.
I do think it’s mildly interesting how Westview actually has its own hospital, though. Imagine being trapped in THAT place for any length of time….jeepers. The sound of patients accepting their grim fate with deep, defeated sighs must be deafening. Likewise the screams of those having their treatments and/or procedures botched horribly by those mean, nasty doctors. I’d prefer self-treating a large puncture wound with caulk and Crazy Glue to going there for even a simple flu shot, wouldn’t you?
Looks like Darin’s wife has found something better to do, 2nd shift at Montoni’s? Batiuk manufactures a computer freeze just so he can fill panels with placeholder dialogue. And I call bullshit on Westview having any building over 2 stories tall.
Not so fast. At my local hospital, the elevators are indeed computer controlled… by the same servers as the hospital’s medical records computers. Darin’s question isn’t so stupid to me, as it shows a little bit of geek knowledge. However, the hospital employee’s snotty reply is uncalled for.
Darin: “Mom, why are you having me deal with these people?”
Ann: “Because you’re a MAN, dear. As a woman, I naturally yield to you. Just like I yielded to your father for decades, wasting my life and energy on a cold, loveless sham of a marriage.”
Darin: “Gah! Listen, I only came along in the first place because it’d look bad if I didn’t. Stop making me DO things! I just want to go home and watch my show!”
Ann: “Now, now. You’re not going to leave me to my own devices again. I didn’t allow you and your father to CRUSH MY DREAMS for years, just to be ignored when I need you to fill up my favor bank!”
Darin: “You bi-….oh. Hi, Dad! We’re here! Geez, do you look awful!”
Ann: “That’s not Fred. That’s a framed photograph Les donated to the hospital back when Lisa, his wife who died of cancer who was your illegitimate mother, died.”
Darin: “….oh.”
Seriously. Tom, as usual, only has sympathies for how HARD it is for family to feign interest in their sick loved ones (see= Every damn Papa Winkerbean strip)…kindness and concern for Fred? HELL NO!
So, Freddie Got Moved, and no one thought to inform the grieving family members? There weren’t any nurses or attendants to say, “Are you the Fairtodead family? We’re moving Fred to room 512, because room 256 doesn’t have enough RAM. We’re hoping we won’t have to move him to room 1024 because…well, don’t ask.”
Is that how this works? Tom Batiuk, I am honestly trying to cut you some slack, as you are probably one of many baffled that you haven’t been fired and are just trying to fulfill a long-vanished need. But please, please, please try harder.
So Westview has its own hospital that’s at least five stories high… but no post office (and apparently no postal delivery at all).
Not sure if Durrin is trying to be sarcastic or if he really thinks there’s a single Master Control Program running the entire hospital.
How is checking paper records old fashioned? Granted they are being moved to computers but people still use paper.
Ryokomayuka: Tom considers anything more advanced than smoke signals to be insanely evil and overly-tech dependent. You’ll note that his characters avoid using phones as much as possible, and on the rare occasions they do, it’s ONLY to share bad news. Because PHONES ARE EVIL.
Boy Lisa has come across this week as an obnoxious tool, just like every other male in Westview.
Oh look, the receptionist stole Funky’s glasses with the little string attached to them.
Does anyone in this century say “computer meltdown?” I work with Them Dang Confounded Contraptions (Batty’s words, not mine) every day, and I’ve never heard anyone say that. So please add to the BatDicktionary at your earliest convenience. Thankyewverymuch.
Mr Lumpkin – Are you saying a single server hosts the patient tracking system AND the elevator controller? I won’t say that’s IMPOSSIBLE impossible, but that’s very unlikely. It would normally be on a separate system provided by the elevator vendor. I don’t mean to be a Beady Eyed Nitpicker. I just do NOT see a possible link between a failed patient tracking system and a failed elevator system. And forget the power failure angle — That stuff has massive backup generators. Oh, but this is Westview. Forget everything I said. The entire hospital is run by a single IBM PC-AT from the early 1980’s plugged directly into a 120 volt outlet in a hallway.
Unseen last panel – “Don’t you sass me, WOMAN! I have an MBA from K*nt State, and am Chief Information Officer at Montoni’s Pizza! Okay, how about the toilets? They’re on the same computer system. Are THEY working? The hospital coffee I got from the vendos is giving me Bubble Guts, and I’m about to have an intestinal meltdown.”
Anyway, room 512 is the morgue. The end. Next week, we look in on the K*nt State Lady Girls Women’s Basketball team. Slumber and Karaleesha keep the bench warm while the team continues its ’62 Mets-like season. Bring a pillow.
As for patients being moved… Yes, my family has experienced that when different family members were in the hospital. A lot of different people and departments are involved in a move, and often nobody communicates this to the family.
As for paper records… my mother, until recently, had a volunteer job filing patients’ paper records after the checked out of our county hospital, but was relieved of her duties recently because they went digital with absolutely no papers to be filed. They’d kept both the digital records and paperwork until they were sure of the system, then one day she showed up for work to find all the files gone, and the file room converted to a restroom.
One last thing… I suggest we all try to inject “solo computer meltdown” into our daily conversations, to see if we can get it to catch on. 😉
I was half-hoping she’d say “to the basement, in drawer #21”.
Westview has a 5 story hospital and no post office because of demand.
People of Westview don’t communicate with the outside world…but they sure have allot of pain, misery and death.
Just supply-side economics….any MBA can figure that out.
Those whacky, incompetent medical people! When they’re not misdiagnosing or mixing up records, they can’t even keep their evil computers running. What is this, Keystone Kops HQ? Is this hospital run by the same people who run the Cleveland Indians and Browns?
BatHole originally thought about having the hospital accidentally MAIL Fred somewhere, but then he was reminded that he had closed the Post Office.
So yeah, we GET it — Suspense. Wow, what a “writer” this guy is. Fred’s somewhere else — Maybe that’s good news. Maybe not so much. And even the “good” or “bad” of it depends on your point of view. Hell, Fishstick wants him on the other side of the dirt as soon as possible. Just can’t figure out why he tacked on this horsecrap about the elevators. Maybe Batso wanted to show how medical people are such clods, you’d expect them to f*ck up an entire building.
Next week: Fred is dead and they hold a funeral. Funky strains his brain trying to think of a name for the hearse. Fred comes back from the dead to help him. Settles again on “Snowball.”
Remember how Jinx was going to be Jessica’s documentary assistant?
Remember how a Hollywood movie was going to be made?
Remember how Becky was finally going to tell off her mother?
Remember how Khan was going to open his own deli?
Remember how Porgy & Mudhead were going to save Morse Science?
……..oh never mind.
Repast at Montoni’s. Or Funky comes thru the funeral home doorway with a stack of pizza boxes. Wonder if he made any with fishsticks in Fred’s honor?
S.P. Charles, good catch! I work at a hospital in Santa Clara, CA, smack dab in the middle of Silicon Valley and our hospital is only three and a half floors. (The fourth floor is half the size of the third)
Other than the Emergency Room, which is always on the first floor, or maybe the morgue, which is usually in the lowest level, the higher you go in hospitals, the worse off you are. Hopefully Fred has a DNR order and never has to wake up to see Westview again.
Oh, and our local hospital in West Chester, PA, does have 5 stories if you count the ground (below-ground) floor, but it’s a county hospital – and West Chester also has 3 post offices and 3 huge high schools in just one school district, not to mention the burbs that also have West Chester residential addresses.
The receptionist had trouble finding Fred because Room S12 is the morgue.