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Hi
Might I offer a suggestion that multiple copies of the form and list of drugs
be taken to the hospital....copies to be taped to the bed or to the door in
the room.

I am the PWP.....but my husband is currently in the hosp with 3 broken ribs
and a collapsed lung........fell off of a ladder while inspecting a home we
may purchase!

I am horrified and amazed at the number of health care providers in the
hospital who have NOT read the information in the chart!  If it is not an
order entered on the computer....then it must not exist!  (including morphine
pump which was not available for two hours after he was taken to his
room.....because "he isn't even in the computer yet, I don't know what was
ordered"...........to which I responded...."Are you treating the computer or
the person in that bed?"

Needless to say, assertiveness training was the one class I have succeeded in
mastering..........everyone at the hospital knows (in writing) of my
displeasure.  (as well as the physician in charge who tried to shrug me off)
He stepped over to talk with my husband (who was on the gurney outside
radiology the second morning).  Fine physican said they were doing the best
that they could..........I pinned him to the wall with the gurney and
announced that he WOULD LISTEN. I was complaining to him, but I prefaced my
statements with the fact that I would like to make this a positive action by
offering to do whatever was needed....write, speak to anyone to offer support
for more staff, more equipment whatever. Well, from that point on the button
for the morphine pump was always available to my husband and the response
time improved a bit when his light went on..........and the computer is no
longer the controlling factor in initiation of treatment!

The staff will be pleased to see Mr. Weeks and the BITCH go home later this
week.  I should temper this statement with the fact that some of the nurses
have been outstanding....but the daytime shift has failed miserably at
adequate care.  (Oxygen not replaced after treatment protocols, morphine pump
button out of reach, no ice chips within reach, drainage suction not turned
back on after procedures, drainage suction not properly attached........blood
pressure medication orders ignored.....I could
go on and on.........but patient comfort was not  of primary concern at
times................Nursing ratio:  1 RN  2 LPN   2 aids/students per 8
patients......adequate care I would think.

If Don were the PWP, I am sure that no one have glanced at the list for the
first 48 hours.......but if it were pinned on the bed they could review it
during temp taking times or something.....at least know that it
existed...........buried in the charting it would be lost.

Rita Weeks