Advertisement. Advertise with us

Letter from Jim Renckens

Please Hold…

After 2 years going silent to regroup their organizational strategies, under new CEO Tommy Ibrahim, and the Bassett Healthcare —“Your call is very important to us please stay on the line your call…”—Network is emerging with a legacy driven ad campaign.

This new campaign—“This call is very important to us please stay on the…”—will highlight the accomplishments of its founder Dr. Mary Imogene Bassett, one ofthe first female medical directors in—“Your call is very important to us please stay…”—the United States. It is a wonderful opportunity to share the history of our beloved MIB hospital. We ,who spend much time at MIB have not been aware of how—“This call is very important to us please…”—important and ground breaking Dr. Bassett was.

When you add in Ayrelia Fox, the patron of A.O Fox Memorial Hospital and Judge A Lindset and Olive B. O’Connor — namesakes of O’Connor Hospital—“Your call is very important to us…”—in Delhi, New York founded in 1921.
Three pioneering women are the reason Bassett Healthcare Network today has such an impressive legacy —“Your call is very important to…”—of care and compassion.

I’ve loved Bassett since the 1970s BUT anyone new that calls Bassett and is introduced to the Network with —“Your call is very…”—and then waits 10-15-20-25-30 minutes for a real person who ‘might’ send you to another—“Your call is answered in the order it was received, you are caller number #2,416.”

After 100 years this is not acceptable.

Jim Renckens
Cooperstown

Posted

14 Comments

  1. Jim, you couldn’t have said it better! Last summer we needed a quick answer (was an upcoming lab test fasting or not?)… and took over half an hour before we got someone…who didn’t know, put us back on hold…and another 15 minutes before we got an answer! We’ve moved away and I’m delighted not to have to deal with that any more!

  2. Jim, you couldn’t have said it better! Last summer we needed a quick answer (was an upcoming lab test fasting or not?)… and took over half an hour before we got someone…who didn’t know, put us back on hold…and another 15 minutes before we got an answer! We’ve moved away and I’m delighted not to have to deal with that any more!

  3. Spot on.

    I go to an orthopedic surgeon in New Hartford. I do so not because they are necessarily better, but just because they are more responsive and available. My Primary Care doctor is still at Bassett, and I like him, but if availability becomes an issue, almost any doctor is better than no doctor.

    Vote with your feet.

  4. Spot on.

    I go to an orthopedic surgeon in New Hartford. I do so not because they are necessarily better, but just because they are more responsive and available. My Primary Care doctor is still at Bassett, and I like him, but if availability becomes an issue, almost any doctor is better than no doctor.

    Vote with your feet.

  5. The need to go to business school. You can have the best heath care providers which from my experience they do, then they blow it with their phone manners.

  6. The need to go to business school. You can have the best heath care providers which from my experience they do, then they blow it with their phone manners.

  7. Remember when the Clinic did not feel like a prison? Remember when you could make an appointment with a human and all the doors to the different departments were open? And sometimes they even got the billing correct? And there were doctors who were willing to take new patients? And they had the best frozen yogurt around…

  8. Remember when the Clinic did not feel like a prison? Remember when you could make an appointment with a human and all the doors to the different departments were open? And sometimes they even got the billing correct? And there were doctors who were willing to take new patients? And they had the best frozen yogurt around…

  9. there are still several good departments a mib, and good doctors, but there are also a number of very busy, overwhelmed doctors who constantly look at computer screen, and have not read your charts. the reorganization has also proved that mib is part of the “health industry”, where little heart is shown when firing doctors and other folks who have served the community for many years. the communication between doctors, and follow up with patients is bad. we need mental health services for young people, and a more holistic view of the individual. we are lucky to have several of the doctors, and are fortunate to have the ER. MIB is not alone in its problems, and the insurance industry in New York adds to the nightmare.

  10. there are still several good departments a mib, and good doctors, but there are also a number of very busy, overwhelmed doctors who constantly look at computer screen, and have not read your charts. the reorganization has also proved that mib is part of the “health industry”, where little heart is shown when firing doctors and other folks who have served the community for many years. the communication between doctors, and follow up with patients is bad. we need mental health services for young people, and a more holistic view of the individual. we are lucky to have several of the doctors, and are fortunate to have the ER. MIB is not alone in its problems, and the insurance industry in New York adds to the nightmare.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Related Articles

In Memoriam: Melissa A. Carvin

ONEONTA—Melissa A. Carvin, 54, passed away unexpectedly on December 17, 2023 at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany.
She was born April 2, 1969 in Oneonta, the daughter of John and Frances (Beams) Mattice.
Melissa graduated from Oneonta High School, Class of 1987, and SUNY Delhi in 1989 with a degree in nursing. She worked on the maternity ward for 26 years at A.O. Fox Hospital, Oneonta, until the unit closed; at that time, she became a Women’s Health triage nurse at Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown.
She was a member of the First United Presbyterian Church in Oneonta.…

In Memoriam: Rita M. Olson

PIERRE, SD—Rita Marie (Shipp) Olson, 91, of Pierre, South Dakota passed away October 19, 2023 with family by her side.
Rita was born in Paola, Kansas in 1932, the daughter of Glenn and Flossie DeMoss Shipp, joining an older sister Barbara. Fond childhood memories she shared included times spent with cousins at her grandparent’s farm near Paola. Stories of her teenage years often involved cruising town with her girlfriends in a Ford Model A rumble seat car, or helping prepare dinner when her parents were busy at the drugstore/soda shop where her father was a pharmacist. Rita graduated from Paola High School in 1950 and went on to the University of Kansas at Lawrence, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in physical therapy in 1954.…

Oberriter: Support Sought for Pantries

I want to thank Stacie Haynes for a thought-provoking article in “News From the Noteworthy” in the edition of October 5, 2023. The value of human-animal bonds and the positive impact of an animal family member’s company is priceless.…

Putting the Community Back Into the Newspaper

Now through March 30, new annual subscribers to “The Freeman’s Journal” and AllOtsego.com (or subscribers who have lapsed for two or more years) have an opportunity to help their choice of one of four Otsego County charitable organizations.

$5.00 of your subscription will be donated to the nonprofit of your choice:

Cooperstown Farmers’ Market, Cooperstown Food Pantry, Greater Oneonta Historical Society or Super Heroes Humane Society.