"Are We Getting the Best Care?"

I am not a big fan of hospitals, and haven't been for many, many years. Luckily I have not been a patient in a hospital since I was nine years old and had my tonsils removed. But I did visit one several times when my mother was hospitalized with cancer when I was fourteen. Since then I have tried to avoid going to one even to visit a patient.

Recently I have had friends who were required to have hospital care. One had back surgery. He had the surgery on Wednesday and was sent home on Sunday. I was very surprised as I thought the kind of surgery he had would require him being hospitalized for several more days. But once they had gotten him on his feet and eating solid food, he was ready for home care.

His wife was amazed at the quickness with which they released him. I think she was fearful of how things would be at home, as she had to return to work. I asked her if she had explained this to the doctors and she said she did. It didn't make much of an impact. Whether or not there would be some one at home to care for her husband didn't seem to be a major concern to them. They had done their part, now it was up to her to do hers.

All of us have heard horror stories of people who have been sent home from the hospital too quickly after surgery. In my friend's case things have worked out, but there is always a risk of complications that could set in if the patient is released too soon.

Hospitals appear to be at the mercy of insurance companies. The longer you are in the hospital the more it costs your insurance carrier. And if the insurance company won't cover it, the hospital runs the risk of not getting the money it is owed. So in many cases when the insurance runs out, the patient is told to leave.

My other friend has been having fainting spells. She had been scheduled for some tests but the fainting instances started happening so frequently that she ended up going to the emergency room. Tests were run there and no problem could be discovered. She was not kept in the hospital overnight and the only advice given was that someone should keep an eye on her for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

My personal opinion was that she should have been kept in the hospital for a few days for observation. At the present time she is afraid to drive since she has had no advance warning when she was going to faint. Also if she had a spell while in the hospital then they could check her heart rate, blood pressure, etc as soon as the "spell" occurred.

I was talking to some people I know who have had relatives in the hospital recently. They said that if you have a member of your family who is admitted then you had better plan to have someone stay with them. This is to make sure they get the care and attention they need. I thought that is what the medical staff was there for. When I said this, they just looked at me like I was crazy.

Our knowledge of how to cure illnesses has grown by leaps and bounds. But our method of care seems to have diminished. My mother received personal care and attention from the nurses when she was hospitalized. They were attentive and soothing. But that was forty years ago.

Nowadays going into the hospital appears to be a risky business. You will probably get great medical care, but personal attention well that is another story altogether. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe the stories I have heard are the exceptions rather than the rules. I hope so. I really, really hope so.

 

 

 

 

 

©2004 Jackie K. Cooper

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