Vertigo in the Hospital Waiting Room

While in the waiting room of the emergency wing of a local hospital in Burbank, California, the following notice was posted for all to read and attempt to decipher:


"The patient has the right to be advised as to be advised as to the reason for the presence of any individual."

Parsed, the sentence looks like this:

The patient (noun, subject) has (verb, transitive) the right (noun, direct object) to be advised (infinitive in passive voice acting as a a noun (object complement complementing "the right"); it is also a verbal: a verbal is a word derived from a verb and is generally used as a noun or as an adjective) as (conjunction, "scope, opportunity")
to be advised (verbal adjective modifying the verbal noun "to be advised") as to (prepositional phrase "concerning") the reason (object of preposition--the whole phrase "as to the reason" acts as an adjective modifying the first "to be advised," a verbal noun) for the presence (prepositional phrase used as an adjective modifying "reason") of any individual. (prepositional phrase used as an adjective modifying "individual")

We may ask: What is the purpose of not one, but two phrases stating "to be advised," which seem be redundant. The explanation seems to be that the first use of "to be advised" means the right to be notified of the right to be advised or counseled ( the second use) concerning any questions or doubts patients may have (while being examined) of the identity or legitimacy of a "stranger" in their midst, an individual who may be doubted to possess the proper legal or medical credentials to be in the patient's presence while being examined.

Postscript: the notice, in small print and posted in a small frame, hung obscurely on a wall post near the admittance desk. No one but the author read the notice in nearly two hours of waiting to enter a room where one might have the need to enquire about the presence of any individual one might feel should not be present.

The notice was clearly legalese: "Dense, pedantic verbiage in a...text that seems designed to obfuscate and requires a lawyer to parse it. Concise Oxford Dictionary.

The notice served to protect the hospital, then the patient, in that order. Such would appear to be state of health care in the United States, although, once in attendance, the physician and staff proved caring and professionally capable.

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