Donna's recovery...

[Christina]

Hi to all,

Just got off the phone with Paul (Donna's husband) and he told me that she's in a lot of pain and discomfort right now, and not getting the care that she had hoped for.
They kept her intubated beause of her blood pressure being so low. She's in the step down unit right now, and out of ICU. She doesn't have a private room and has to share with a gentlemen, who tried to help her when the nurse wasn't available. She had a very crabby nurse yesterday who didn't think she needed any other pain medication but Tylenol 3. Donna was miserable! She also has a phone in her room that doesn't work and she can't call out of, but she's able to receive calls.
Paul gave me the phone number of the hospital so I could talk with her personally. She confirmed everything he already had told me. Her INR is only 1.4 and they'll be discharging her tomorrow morning. So much for our wonderful health care. It is getting worse by the day I believe. Overworked, underpaid and tired nurses who take their frustrations out on the patients.

Christina
AVR's 8/7/00 & 8/18/00
Tucson, AZ

 

[Ross]

That is terribly unfortunate. I had care somewhat like that during my stay July through September. I would not go back for anything if I could help it. The problem is, all the hospitals are experiencing staff (Nurse) shortages etc., and it does end up that the patient is the one who gets the brunt of their anxieties. I know all too well what it's like.

I can't beleive they would release her with an INR that low. The pain is going to have to be dealt with also.

Welcome to todays new, improved U.S. Health Care System!

 

[Gnusgal]

That's awful. But at least, if they send her home, she can get some good TLC from Paul. I can't belive that they would make her share a room with a man! It's embarassing enough to be in those revealing gowns, much less trying to get up to go to the bathroom with a strange man in the room. Donna, you'll be in my prayers!

 

[Nancy]

What a bunch of baloney, hospitals having bad nursing care for open heart surgery patients, or for that matter, any other medical problem.

I won't stand for it! If need be, complain to the Head Nurse, or go overher/his head if you have to. It doesn't have to be.

Joe better get good care in the hospital, or ELSE. No ifs, ands or butts (little play on words there).

His life is too important to screw around with and he's been through too much.

Paul, you should write a letter to the administration about the care Donna got. Hospitals are rated, and part of the rating is quality of care. The surgeon might like to know just what his nurses are doing after he is finished with his work.

Overall recovery in the hospital is very dependent on how good the nursing care is, doctor care also.

 

[hensylee]

Co-ed hospitals? Unbelievable. Bad nurses/doctors - believable. Medical knowledge is that patients get better faster without pain and the way to get that is medicine for it - I would jump up and down and carry on - a lot!. Then some more. Got bad info from local hospital ER, wrote a letter to the editor and the hospital administrator was all over the whole emergency room staff. Letters to editor tell EVERYBODY! Bad advertisement for the hospital. Tired and overworked staff isn't an excuse to mistreat a patient. They are all overworked and tired - but so are a lot of other professions.

 

[Nancy]

Can't remember for sure, but was that Rhode Island Hospital where Donna had such poor care??

 

[medtronic of borg]

modesty

modesty

Get real! First of all your modesty be damed. A roomate of the opp. sex is(like you)is not intrested in anything but feeling better and going home. He or she could care less what you look like.

Second, the nursing staff in acute hospitals was excellent before they switched from team nursing to primary nursing. In a nut shell it caused more paper-work, higher ratios, fewer nurses. That was the nursing industries fault.

The so called shortage is due to so many nurses saying enough is enough and in-activating the license. Simultaniously the administrations cuting the nursing staffs.

So today we have a huge shortage people with their lic. that wont come back in untill they start paying attention. They have just now started bring wages into line. But they need to stop all this pt care plan stuff that is overloading staff and not being followed for a lack of time.

The avg. general surg. in the us today gets paid $177-249,000/yr.
the avg. OR nurse makes $36,450/yr. hmm doesn't look right to me. Its also worse in staff nuses!

I believe the answere lies in how Drs and RNs are paid. Instead of paying them to treat us when we are sick...they should get a set salery per pt. This is an annual fee. They don't expect payment when we are sick and hospitalized. This would give them an insentive to keep us healthy. It would head off insurance all together. As long as I am healthy I can my my small monthly payment for my life time. In the end the hospital would make a more steady income. And lower a butt load of expenses I havent gone into.

As it is now they get payed to sort of keep us going just long enough for the insurence co.s check to clear!

 

[Bill Hall]

Christina,
Thanks for posting the news. You are one great lady. Sorry to hear about Donna's bad experience. My opinion is that it will happen once in a while. It's just sad that it happens to a person who has just gone through such a traumatic event like surgery. Anyway, glad to see she will be home soon. Paul and Donna can have better control about her health from that point.

 

[hensylee]

Med - I disagree with you on the co-ed roommates - and surely don't understand it nor ever heard of it before. Not kosher.

On the nurses, I agree that they are overworked. I have a retired nurse cousin who berates the 'new' way of doing things and yes, the current nursing staff is terribly overworked and underpaid - still no excuse to mistreat a patient and if the patient hasn't enough pain med, that is surely mistreatment, in my opinion and not up to the nurse to decide. My cousin worked when things were different - there were several steps in the ladder, from aide to RN and each had a job to do and it got done every day and on time and all of them seemed to be happy in their jobs. Many nurses today make far more than $36,000, tho. Have a family member who has recently entered the profession as a RN and she does much better than $36,000, in a small town, to boot. But, believe me, they earn every dollar they make. The hospitals don't have enough nurses and I don't believe it's because they can't afford them; I believe it's the bottom line as you say. Ain't that terrible - for all of us.

 

[joy]

First of all, I do not believe that going over someone's head to the patient contact rep. does anything. This is a very sensitive subject with me. I went just below the CO of the naval hospital to complain about the treatment I got on new year's eve, and all the doctor got was a slap on the hand. REALLY upset me. I will be doing what Hensylee said...It's time people knew what these hospitals are really like. Hopefully they will start treating us much better. At least at the hospital I am about to write about! Take it easy, and Paul...Don't accept bad medical care.. your hard earned money deserves good attention, a private room(or at least a same sex roomate)I would have gone to the hospital administrator right then. At least she'll be at home where you can take care of her tomorrow! Good luck and if you need anything, we'll be here!