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The hospital care horror stories of PD patients comes up rather frequently on this list. Inevitably, the comment is made that hospital personnel should certainly be prepared to take care of the complicated medical regimen that PD folks depend upon to function. I've commented on this problem before, and it's time to review the reality of the response of hospital personnel to PD. 1. PD patients are *infrequently* hospitalized. Those that are admitted usually have an acute problem unrelated to PD. 2. The PD patients most seen on medical units *do not have complicated medical regimens.* Yesterday, for instance, I cared for a man with PD who was obviously under-medicated (and barely functional as a consequence). He was receiving Sinemet 3 x day before meals - that was it. 3. When a person with a complicated medical regimen is admitted to the hospital it is *critical* that the medication schedule used at home be somewhere at the patient's bed side as well as in the patient's chart and at the nurses station. The bigger the font type used for such a schedule, the better. Believe me.......all medical staff in a general medical surgical hospital need to be appraised over and over again about the importance of timely medication administration for PD patients - such patients are *rare*, therefore personnel need to be educated by family members about the importance of timely med administration. Having a loved one staying with the patient is not a bad idea. The reality of hospital care today is that we are suffering a terrible nursing shortage in the midst of ever increasing acute medical cases appearing on general med-surg units. The person having the coronary is going to be getting more attention than the PD patient down the hall......it is an unfortunate situation that isn't going to be resolved any time soon. ------- God bless Mary Ann Ryan R.N. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn