Thank you for the feedback regarding your recent experience at our medical center. We value such candor because it helps us to specifically identify and address patient and family irritants. I appreciate that this was a frustrating experience for you and your husband and I am deeply sorry that a room was not immediately available.

Unfortunately, our surgical volumes can at times create challenges with bed availability, which is not uncommon in a large academic medical center. In health care it is important that the appropriate level of care accompanies the room so that the specific health care needs of the patient are addressed. I can assure you that although we were not immediately successful, we worked very hard to locate the right bed on a unit with staff who had the appropriate clinical competencies to care for your husband based on his health care needs. Our priority is always focused on the care and safety of our patients, which is why we took care to keep your husband in the area where he was until we were able to locate the right bed for him.

As committed to excellence as we are, there are times when we simply miss the mark. However, we have adopted a philosophy that when we don’t get it right, we’ll work twice as hard to make it right. To that end, we will take your feedback and use it to help improve our patients’ and family members’ experiences when faced with similar situations in the future. We will also reach out to you personally to apologize for not meeting your expectations.

Once again, thank you for your feedback and thank you for trusting the University of Maryland Medical Center with your health care needs.

Auntie