My elderly parents had an unfortunate experience at their local hospital last week. I wrote about it. My sister (the nurse) sent a link to the appropriate people in high places. This is what happened next.
Boca Raton Community Hospital - Update, All Good
You know they're taking you seriously when you get an immediate message from the president of the hospital. He didn't have my email address, so he joined OS in order to PM me. That says a lot about character and dedication to providing excellence.
Here's the text of his message, absolutely spot on:
Sally,
I am the President of Boca Raton Community Hospital.
Your article was entertaining, but the care you speak of is troubling and unacceptable. It is not the norm at Boca Raton Community Hospital. If you would be good enough to give me the name of your father and his dates of hospitalization, I would like to look into the care you describe. Only through hearing of concerns like yours can I improve the hospital.
Please feel free to contact me directly at (email address); (phone number).
I apologize for the care your father received and will take action to insure that it doesn't happen again.
Full Name
More Updates and Efforts
While I was reading that, my sister IM'd me to say she was on the phone with the Patient Advocate who'd already started investigating the events surrounding my father's hospitalization.
I spoke to her next. She'd figured out who my parents were because she'd met with them after my conversation with Nurse Ratchet. I'm guessing the charge nurse had second thoughts about that call and contacted her.
She was kind, concerned, also determined to make sure "re-education" efforts were undertaken. She told me the hospital often makes policy changes based on any complaints that point to previously unknown areas for improvment.
As I was wrapping up with her, my parent's Primary called to give me an update on both Mom and Dad and to find out what had happened. He's one of the good guys, adores my folks, takes very good care of them.
Still, he doesn't live at the hospital. If something goes wrong he does his best to make it right. And to be sure it doesn't ever happen again.
Two minutes after we finished talking, my phone rang again. It was the president of the hospital. He reiterated his distress at the incidents of substandard care and his determination to find and fix any problems. He also wanted to assure me investigations were already underway.
He made sure I had his personal phone number and email, said I should call him directly if my parents were ever in the hospital again
I can't ask for more than that. Sure, I could ask why it happened at all, but that ship sailed. He can't make it un-happen and I don't expect him to.
We gave them the information. It's his role to problem-solve and I am convinced he will.
Somehow I think that should my parents need care at the Boca Raton Community Hospital, they will be treated very, very well. And I will know exactly who to contact immediately if I have any concerns.
I've learned a lot from this experience. And from the many people who've given me the benefit of their own experiences and expertise.
Keys to Receiving Good Health Care
Communication. Preparation. Determination. Expectation. Knowledge. Patience. Civility. And sometimes, if all else fails, a Big Fat Mouth.
We must help our parents --and possibly ourselves-- learn to advocate for responsive health care. People over 75 come from a generation which venerated doctors -- and feared the power of nurses.
We must help them learn, and remind ourselves that no one has the right to be rude to them. Or you. Or me.
Certainly not someone in a position of care and service. Certainly not when we're ill, in pain, afraid.
Nurses are responsible for hospital patients' lives. They are responsible for their' safety, well being, pain management, medication, often the most personal and intimate bodily functions.
As my sister Judy said, "Look, it’s a tough job but you have to love it to do it. That, plus we deal with the most basic needs of sick people. Things happen."
Nurses are fairly well paid. They are often overworked but you know what, tough, so are all the rest of us. The economy sucks, anyone who has a job should be relieved at the least and trying hard to do it well at best.
Many do. Those who don't should be re-educated and fast. Nursing is hands-on and vital to the health care industry. We should be telling stories about good, even great nurses. Nurses who patients remember with pleasure.
Please, somebody do just that. Tell me about a good experience with nursing care. And the next time my parents are patients at the Boca Raton Community Hospital, I expect to report they can do the same.
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Max Rivlin-Nadler
drlaura2
Kristina Lakes
mhold
L in the Southeast
Jane Brogan
Salon.com
Comments
:-)
nice update.
Oh the 'net! I posted on Facebook about a horrid experience I had at Duane Reade (or local drugstore) and got a ton of comments and ideas from friends (yes they are really my friends, I don't friend strangers). After their advice, I contacted corporate Duane Reade by email (avoiding the store management) and they resolved it. Last week, I left poor feedback on buy.com's website after I was sent my kid's Halloween cowboy costume which pictured a hat (but didn't include one!). Bam! I got an email offering to refund my money if I would revise my feedback (but I could keep the costume, or the 3/4 costume)
I am encouraged to consider doing the same for GBMC, where my parents experienced a similar situation (as I posted in your last post's comments). I only mentioned the highlights when I posted, but mistakes made (hello? they insisted on taking an MRI of her head when she was there for her lower back pain, oops!) could one day lead to tragic results. (I got sidetracked on writing my last post about their newest crisis, their home flood, got to get back to the hospital story, its a comedy/tragedy of errors)
I particularly like what you said about nurses. We were terrified to upset them, they are the gatekeepers to everything, doctors, meds, getting to the bathroom! Sure, they are overworked, as you said, but they are paid well and lots of people work hard too. A friend of mine is an anesthesiologist and she says THE DOCTORS have to kowtow to the nurses or they make their lives miserable. We have a family friend who is a nurse and she has the great qualities, a smart, responsive problem solver who takes everything that comes her way in stride. I wish hospitals could clone her.
Wonder if there should be an Open Call for hospital nightmares....
Last thought, if (when) my parents need to go to the hospital again, can we come to Boca with you, I have a feeling you and yours are going to get the VIP treatment!
I have a friend who is a nurse in a PhD nursing program. She is interviewing nurses from the WWII (my mother's) generation.
She thinks that nursing has lost its focus, which used to be on the spiritual side of patient care and bedside nursing. I'll see if I can entice her to post something here about her research.
If she does I'll let you know.
denese
Seems like wonderful, caring nurses are the norm so much that we hardly notice them. It's the mean, overworked ones like Ratchshit who make an impression. So glad your folks escaped alive. Activism is the key to any bad service. Which reminds me; I must write a letter about the Emergency Room in our local hospital!
I have a few happy nurse stories as a well as a few just like this one, but I'll not put them here. If you really want to know, I'll gladly PM you with them but I consider them a bit too private to put up here.
Advocating for patients is a very important job, and if you ask me every single patient needs to have one standing by.
Kudos to the hospital for jumping on this. Now they need to make sure those staff members understand what they did was wrong, WHY it was wrong, and WHY it should never happen again.
Thumbed.
You've done a great service, not only for your parents if they return to that hospital, but to all future patients.
But this experience emphasizes a very important point. Unless a patient has a good advocate at their side, it is easy for them (regardless of age, but especially the elderly) to fall through the cracks. Nurses work long shifts. Doctors have too many patients. Most are not in the medical field to get rich, they're there to make a positive difference in peoples' lives. But every patient needs at least one vigilant watchdog. Fortunately, your parents have two.
Having worked in a hospital, I can say that what you did is extremely important. Any time someone is in a hospital, they should have a relative or friend there to advocate for them and oversee their care - -day and night if at all humanly possible!
Patients who have someone present get better care from the staff (studies show) and the "minder" can help prevent medical errors by questioning everything that's done to the patient and asking all staff to wash hands before touching the patient -- errors (mostly with drugs) and infections (caused largely by lack of hand washing) are what make hospitals so dangerous.
I would add a very LARGE baseball bat.
If you have a health care story, good or bad, post about it, please. Or start writing it, I'm going to ask Kerry for an open call. Think what we could send to Congress and the president.
For those who stressed the importance of advocacy --for ourselves and our families-- it's the most vital component of getting good health care... and staying alive.
Stay tuned for my post of tips on being your own best advocate.
Knowing what I know about nursing, and knowing what a big mouth I have, I wouldn't last a week in that ever challenging occupation.
http://open.salon.com/blog/the_good_witch/2009/09/08/fairy_tales_can_come_true
denese