I started surgery earlier this week and started at a new hospital. First time I've been during my training, actually, due to COVID. I was clueless and had to rely on my peers to tell me what to do to get in and set up. After parking in the lot, I walked in to the hospital. No one was at the front desk but there was a janitor standing there, happy as can be and friendly. I had scrubs on but also had a backpack too. No one checked it or me or asked for my ID. I actually had to go to the sixth floor to get said ID but he didn't care. He told me where the elevators were and I made my way up.
Once there, I went left instead of right. I was smack dab in some unit, walking around looking for the room I had to go to. Walked by several nurses at their desks, not a blink of an eye. As I was walking by rooms, I peeked in and saw patients on their beds. I could've walked in had I wanted to. Finally I asked a nurse at the station for the room number and she didn't even know the room existed. She had to ask someone else who told me to go down the opposite way down the hall.
I eventually got my ID and met up with a colleague who let me in to the locker room to get changed and then enter the OR but holy shit, if I was a degenerate, I could have had a field day. I slipped through so many cracks, starting with no one at the front desk at 7 AM and having the janitor just grease the rails for me to make my way through.
It's not a big hospital; it's a community hospital, but it's not in the ghetto or anything. It is in the city. But you can't be that lax with security. Not pre-COVID and certainly not post. As I'm typing this, I realize I didn't even see a security guard at all. And I didn't take some secret, Illuminatti entrance, it was the main damn entrance, circle driveway and all.
So strange. Also, the hospital is still pretty shitty and empty inside. The locker room and OR looks like a high school hallway from the 70s. Or my high school, which hadn't been renovated since the 70s or 80s. Same drab colors, tile, etc. I'm not expecting the Belagio level of decor but it was still pretty dreary.