Healthcare – a personal experiance
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My elderly mother has bone cancer. Lately she has not been doing very well – mostly emotional issues and symptoms from chemotherapy.
I had to take her to an Urgent Care Center over this past weekend due to severe back pains. The experience was ridiculous. We arrived to the facility and of course had lots of paperwork to fill out. Filling out the paperwork was an experience itself. I had to fill out he same information several times – sometimes even on the same piece of paper.
There were not very many people there when we arrived – possibly 6 people. I had thought the wait would not be long. It was. This 79 year old women with severe back pain and she just has to sit there and suffer. It was probably about 1 hour and 15 minutes before her name was called. We had to go to another waiting room – where we had to wait another 1 hour.
So – a total of about 2 hours and 15 minutes may not seem like a very long time – but to me – and my mother – pathetic.
By the way – the general physician found nothing wrong and nothing was done to solve the problem. As I am typing this she is being taken by ambulance to the hospital. Tax dollars well spent yet again.
At the hospital – things got no better. I am not going to make this post any longer than it needs to be – but most of the experiance at the hospital was negative. Here are a few examples:
- Mother vomiting for hours – and no nausea medicine provided even thought that was included in doctors orders
- Calling a nurse – multiple times – and waiting for over an hour for her to finally show up
- Went 3 days and saw the doctor once
- Mother in severe pain 1 hour after taking pain killers – called nurse 2 times and 1 hour later she shows up
- Requested a strawberry flavored Boost – 1.5 hours later it still hasn’t shown up. Nurse comes in – tell her for the 2nd time that it hasn’t shown. She calls Food Services – it shows up 15 minutes later. Pathetic.
I have a lot of positive experiences with our health care system – all of them within the confines of my excellent insurance provided by my employer with scheduled visits/procedures. Emergencies and urgent care situations – my experiences have been horrible.
Health care has been a major talking point within the political arena for quite some time. The recent Congressional passage of the Obama Health Care Plan I firmly believe will do nothing but make the health care system less efficient and less able to provide the care that people will need. I also firmly believe that with the great minds in this country – and the unbelievable technology and resources available – the healthcare system could be so much better. It is greed for money and power that prevents true positive “change” from occurring.
Sorry if I am just rambling….about something not exactly the normal content for this blog. Health care is important. I think the better we are able to take care of ourselves the better we will be – even if TSHTF never happens.
Rourke
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Tags: Current Events
Current Events | Rourke November 18, 2010
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By Glenn R., November 18, 2010 @ 3:00 am
You’re not rambling! It’s your Mom. You love her and you hate seeing her being put through the agony of what our health care system has devolved into. Those of us that he been through similar ordeals with our loved ones understand completely.
You’ve passed along a lot knowledge to those of us who are regular readers of your blog. I thank you for that. Know that there are many that care. You and your Mom will be in my thoughts and prayers.
By Rourke, November 18, 2010 @ 3:30 am
Glenn –
I really appreciate that. I hate feeling powerless – and when you havve a loved one suffering and there seems to be little that you can do – it is tough.
Rourke
By Scott R, November 18, 2010 @ 4:18 am
Rourke sorry to hear that your mother is ill, we will say a prayer for her tonight. Unfortunately I too see worse care ahead of us in the future. Hopefully better days ahead for you and your family.
By Terry, November 18, 2010 @ 4:36 am
Thank you for sharing your experience and I was sorry to hear of your mother’s pain. We appreciate all you do to keep us informed, even in the midst of your challenges. Blessings to you and your family.
By Leah, November 18, 2010 @ 5:59 am
We’ve been told that if you need to be seen quickly and it’s not something that your primary care doctor can take care of then you need to come in by ambulance. If you are a walk in, then unless you are bleeding heavily all over everything you will not be seen in a timely manner. Coming by ambulance doesn’t guarantee a quicker response by the doctors but at least you have a bed to lie on rather than sitting on a waiting room chair.
Where we live, emergency rooms are used as regular doctor’s office visits because they are “free”. It’s really pulled up the system.
Prayers will go out for your mom and the rest of your family.
By Joe, November 18, 2010 @ 6:31 am
Rourke, indeed it is sad to hear about your mother’s ordeal.
A few notes for future articles/reference:
1) Those of us not older yet we need to get in top condition and stay that way NOW (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTF5rFM1cWk)
2) If you are older (60+) look up studies on weight training and the benefits even for more ‘tenured’ folks, turn that diet around with a garden, grass fed meats and non-GMO grains.
3) Learn everything you can about alternative medicine, specifically become a Master Herbalist. Without going off on a tangent we have learned a tremendous amount and if I told you some of the things that we have seen first hand you honestly wouldn’t believe it.
Give our best to your Mother.
By Rourke, November 18, 2010 @ 1:01 pm
Hello all. I want to thank everyone for there comments, prayers and emails. I actually responded to each comment and for some reason they did not show up – so I decided to leave my own. I write this on Thursday and my mother is still in the hospital. The doctors do not have an explanation for her back pain – which comes and goes. Their answer seems to be to treat the pain – in a ridiculously slow manner. I would like to transfer her to another hospital – but my brother would like to get her home with meds and make an appointment for her to see her regular doctor.
I suspect if she goes home today she willend up being taken to the other hospital – which is 45 minutes away – over the weekend. Hopefully not.
By Grill Sgt., November 18, 2010 @ 1:52 pm
Sounds just like the VA hospital in Portland, OR! Gov’t healthcare at its finest-GAG!
By DC Josh, November 18, 2010 @ 5:19 pm
Rourke,
My prayers go out to your mother. Mine is suffering through breast cancer right now and if it were’nt for the fact that my father retired from the military and they have insurance, I am certain they would have lost their home years ago. This is the biggest debate going on in the country that I truely believe everyone (on both sides) knows nothing about.
DC Josh
By GoneWithTheWind, November 18, 2010 @ 7:43 pm
I’m not trying to rain on your parade here just offerring some ideas. If you have symptoms/reactions from the chemo go to your oncologist not urgent care or emergency room. You also should have a primary care physician that you can always contact. I have gotten prescriptions by phone when I was on vacation and this includes prescriptions for things the doctor would normally want to see me for first. I put my oncologist, primary care, pulmonologist and their nurses in my cell phone. At least twice my primary care physician had me go to the emergency room but in both those cases he referred me so they were waiting and they admitted me to the hospital. I made an extra effort to “make nice” with the doctor’s staff and had a name familiarity with them. I have even given one of my surgeons a box of See’s candy as a thank you for a successful operation. (If it had been unsuccessful I wouldn’t have given him anything. :^)
All of this is exacerbated if you are trying to represent the patient. Make sure you have a medical power of attorney and a general power of attorney for your mother and make sure that a copy is on file with her doctors. Make sure you understand how this empowers you because I can guarantee some/many of the staff and doctors will not know and you will have to educate them. Be firm but polite and have a lawyer on speed dial.
By Sunny, November 19, 2010 @ 1:53 am
If you’re not happy with the care a loved one is getting anytime in a hospital setting ask to speak to the charge nurse and explain the situation. If still not resolved ask to meet the Chief of Staff, that usually lights a fire under everyone on the floor. If however it doesn’t ask to speak with the hospital director. Most folks that work in hospitals honestly care, that’s why they are in the profession but unfortunately are often over worked and understaffed.
Prayers for your mum.