Heather,
To be honest, I don't even know where Swedish is!
But the lack of communication I totally get. It's truly not an exclusive problem at any hospital, in any department. Talk about the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing...
My last surgery (for a massive hernia repair, due to complications with my transplant), I had a pre-op appointment where they very, very specifically told me my surgery was scheduled for Monday. Print outs with the date time, instructions to call on Friday for arrival times on Monday morning, blah, blah, blah.
So after putting in my call on the Friday before, I gave the surgeon's nurse a call to ask a random question. As we got off the phone, she cheerily says, "See you on Tuesday for surgery." Uhhhhhh....wait a minute.
Yup, it was on the surgeon's schedule for Tuesday. Gee thanks. I know I didn't have any other plans for Tuesday, but the family who needed to get me to the surgery sure did.