Patient Advocate

This past week has been a bit traumatic. Without going into all the details, suffice it to say that I had to raise hell to get care for a family member at a local hospital when it should have been something that automatically happened.
I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn't persisted in taking my cause up the chain of command until I got someone to pay attention and see that the proper care was delivered in a timely manner. Yes, I know I'm being vague but I am protecting the patient. Believe me, anyway, when I tell you the situation was dire and it was only by making a royal pain out of myself that a potential disaster was avoided.
It was something I should not have had to do. Is health care that bad? This particular hospital is a good one but the problems I saw was a doctor who overbooked procedures either from a lack of staff/facilities or greed, and staff [nursing, administration] who did not advocate for the patient, who thought that by merely acknowledging a problem, writing up a report, documenting in notes, that their job was done.
NO!
They have an obligation to take the problem up the ladder until a satisfactory solution is reached. In our particular case, a medical device needed to be inserted in a timely manner. But the patient was put off for days. The patient was admitted on Sunday afternoon and we were told on Tuesday morning that it was scheduled for Wednesday despite the patient's deteriorating condition. Instead of the procedure [which took all of an hour], medication was being given [which caused other side effects] and the emergency cart was placed outside the patient's door in case it was needed.
Unacceptable to me! And believe me when I tell you they heard about it.
We were lucky. The procedure was done on Tuesday morning and the patient is doing well.
But I have to wonder how many other patients are compromised on a daily basis by hospitals and doctors and staff across this country who do less than what is best for their patients. And families accept their behavior because they don't know any better and they mistakenly believe their family member is getting the best care available.
I think the time has come to take the system to task.
What Jon Stewart is doing to financial advisors, we need to do to healthcare.

Thank you, President Obama

Like many Americans last night, I tuned in to President Obama's address to both houses of Congress. I had high hopes for that speech and I wasn't disappointed.
As I expected it would be, the speech was filled with hope and promise, encouragement and comfort, but also a call to our better selves. The President not only laid out a plan for him and our leaders but called to each American to do their part. When was the last time you heard your President ask parents to pay attention to their children? It's been a long time coming.
I was also interested, as a nurse and as a consumer, to hear what plans he had for the health care industry. I think his plans are good [streamlining health records by taking them into the digital age, curing cancer, etc].
Addressing education will also help healthcare because some of our problem lies not with a lack of health care students but with a lack of health care teachers.
Targeting the high cost of health care will also be a big boon to the economy because that is something that is going to get worse fast if we are not proactive. The Boomers are going to need lots of care very soon and it's not free. Whether it's private insurance, Medicare, or out of pocket, someone is going to have to pay for it.
All in all, the President nailed it with his Address.
As for the Republicans, what can I say? Same old, same old. They really need to buy a clue.

Doctor shortage in Japan caused a death

A man in Japan was injured in an accident and died while waiting for paramedics tried to find a hospital that would accept him. Their reason for refusal? They did not have the doctor staff to take care of him.
Could that happen elsewhere?
Could there conceivably be other reasons for refusal in days to come?
Is this an unusual case or a portend of things to come?
I don't know. I certainly don't have the answers to that but it definitely concerns me.
Our generation is aging. More health concerns and problems are going to crop up. More hospital days are going to be needed.
Who is going to be there to deliver the care?
I think a far more vexing problem, at least for this country, is not so much a doctor shortage as a nursing shortage. And the nursing shortage is not so much a function of a lack of people wanting to become nurses but a lack of people to teach them.
Nursing programs are feeling a crunch for lack of teachers. Lack of teachers translates into low student enrollment. Low student enrollment translates into a nursing shortage.
Do you see the problem here?