Danville Register and Bee
September 12, 2007
I have heard and read so much about how the public’s opinion of Danville Regional Medical Center is in jeopardy and how it is working so hard to repair the damage that has been done in the past. Here are my recent experiences.
My 85-year-old grandfather fell and broke his hip - a serious injury. EMS transported him to the hospital, where he was cared for very quickly and with great care. Surgery was done immediately to repair the break. It went great and he was well on his way.
As expected, he had an undetermined amount of time to spend in the hospital for recovery. Unfortunately, he is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patient and pneumonia is always a concern. As his time in the hospital lengthened, the danger of pneumonia or other lung-related illnesses became more imminent.
The weekend rolled around and talk of “skeleton crews” started. Over the weekend, a chest X-ray was taken due to the respiratory problems that he was having. That comforted the family. Then the report that the X-ray may not be read for a couple of days due to the Labor Day weekend became a great burden. See, they were operating on “skeleton crews.” Yes, he is an 85-year-old man with a history of COPD (he was hospitalized for it for five days last month) that just had emergency surgery and was currently facing the fear of pneumonia, but he will just have to wait for his X-ray results. But that’s OK, because they only had “skeleton crews.”
I must say that my grandfather - as well as his children - seemed to be happy with the caregivers that were attending to him. In no way am I trying to take away from those people that gave him aid when needed.
My 75-year-old grandmother is as stubborn as a mule. It’s hard to make her sit down and take care of herself sometimes. She lives alone, cleans several homes, mows her own grass, sits with her 94-year-old mother … get the picture? She also has had a horrible time with her knees.
After years of trying to convince her to have them replaced, she has finally given in. Her appointment was set. She had her consultation at the doctor’s office and do you want to guess what they told her to expect? “Skeleton crews.” They actually told her to try to provide someone to sit with her around the clock while she was in the hospital because of the nursing shortage.
Now she has even more to worry about than the original issue with her knees. She has to worry about inadequate care, not because of an angry person’s rumor, but because her care provider has actually showed a concern about the ability of the hospital to provide care for her. How’s that for patient confidence?
Recently my father, also a COPD patient, was taken by ambulance to the Emergency Department for difficulty breathing. When I got there, I was concerned because of the condition that I found him in - in a room by himself, coughing to the point of gasping for air and definitely unable to tell me what he needed. Two nurses came in and showed genuine concern. His cough subsided and he caught his breath and was able to speak clearly. The nurses assured him they would get him another breathing treatment and we felt a little relief.
His condition seemed important at the time. So after about 20 minutes and several more coughing episodes, I began to wonder what had happened to the staff. I walked into the hallway and thought to myself, this must be what they mean by “skeleton crews.” It was like ghost town - no nurses, no doctors, not even a custodian. I had to go looking for someone to ask help from. I eventually found our two nurses hugged up to a security guard, laughing and joking. Evidently, they didn’t want to share the subject of humor with me because they quickly gained their distance and the smiles and laughter went away. They assured me help was on the way. Another 20 minutes passed and he got his treatment.
I know I’ve said a lot and maybe some things that should not have been said. I can only imagine other stories that are being told. The sad thing is that Danville and Pittsylvania County residents just don’t have a great deal of choices. They have to rely on the only hospital that we have. So, they take it. That’s all they can do.
The statements I just made do not reflect the feelings of the patients I mentioned, or my family. Just me. My insurance requires that I go to Centra-Health in Lynchburg for treatment. I used to think that was an inconvenience, but now I think it’s a blessing.
I know there are a lot of hard workers at Danville Regional - people who really care about others and do their best to help people heal. My hat is off to them. Don’t take it personally; we know it’s not your fault. For those of you who would rather goof off and play games while others lie in pain or suffering, get another job.
In closing, for those of you who are responsible for putting our loves ones in the hands of “skeleton crews,” shame on you - you are in the wrong business. Oh, one more thing. Since patients are getting skeleton crew-care, are they being charged skeleton-crew bills?
CHRIS ANDERSON
Chatham
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27 comments:
What a powerful and eloquent statement. While most people have given up trying to alert the public to the dangers of DRMC, it is refreshing to see this even-handed expression. Thank you!
--DRY FORK
No amount of words can express the sorrow I felt while reading this post. In my mind I could see the struggles encountered within the walls of our once fine healthcare facility. And it saddens me that we have sunk so far into the mire. Unfortunately I can relate to this family because I, too, experienced the same type of neglect and lack of treatment from the nursing staff. And that was before LifePoint even came into the picture.
When it was first announced that DRMC was being sold to LifePoint, as an employee I hoped for the best but expected the worst. We have endured many changes during the past two years. The struggles of this organization are much like a ship at sea being sailed by a crew with no Captain. Yes, the crew has talent and needs to be directed, and their skills and knowledge utilized in the most efficient manner. But any ship without a Captain who possesses a strong purpose and direction will sail aimlessly upon the waters.
Actions speak louder than any words or fancy campaign ads. I don't have the answers, I don't know what the future will hold for this hospital or the community. But I will continue to do my job to the very best of my ability.
What makes it all so awful for us who WANT to make things work with Lifepoint is that the brass deeply and honestly does not care about patients. They see them as numbers. They see them as items to be moved about. They see them as a means to greater amounts of money.
Most of us still here CARE about patients. That's why we are here to begin with.
These new slicks ads only serve to prove that Lifepoint cares NOT about patients or quality care. They care only about image.
When and how will it all end?
Why doesn't Lifepoint/DRMC be honest and openly urge patients to be sure to bring a family member to tend to them for non-medical needs. It would free up the staff to be able to give proper care to those who simply have no one to care for them.
That is a constructive suggestion.
That's a great point. It is cruel for the hospital to let innocent people come in and learn by awful experience that they need to have a loved one with the patient at all times.
Of course they should warn people!
All I can say is that after what happened to my father in that dump last week, I am suing the bastards. There must be some lawyer around here who specializes in suing them. Who is it, please. I need to know.
As a current employee of DRMC, I feel the public's concern. As a nurse, I typically have 7-8 patients per night to care for. Having family members assist in the care of their loved ones is greatly appreciated. However, sometimes it is more of a hindrence than a help. Familiy members become impatient and often rude when the staff has not responded in what they deem to be an appropriate amount of time. I would understand their cause for concern when there is a medical emergency such as change in patinet condition, labored breathing, etc... However, more often than not; family members expect us to drop everything to answer questions like "what was mama's last temperature" or "what medications did mama receive today". In addition, we are frequently asked to bring ice chips or drinks at record speeds or to take family members' blood pressures. The community needs to understand the role of their caregivers as well as learn to give us a break. The reason it is taking us so long to care for your family member is because we are too busy with all the other mundane stuff that you or others request of us. So here are my suggestions when vising family and frinds: 1)Don't start off with an attitude. Explain calmly what you need. 2)If you request something, make sure that you request everything you need at one time so as to help staff avoid multiple trips. 3)Please move out of the way when staff enter the room. We are tired of tripping over everyone just to provide patient care. 4) If you can do it yourself, by all means do (turn mama, put/take mama on or off bedpan, assist to bathroom). 5)Please ask for assistance using the callbell that is located in the pt's room. Don't wander out into the hall and stop the first person that you see because then that person has to track down the appropriate person to handle your needs and thus loses valuable time assisting their own pt's. Also, when someone answers the call light and says "Can I help you" please be specific. Many times people just ask for a nurse when the task could be completed by another member of the staff. As a caregiver I want to encourage you to seek care at DRMC. Many of the same nurses that were here pre-LifePoint are still here and although some have left; those of us that remain are dedicated to providing excellent patient care. We need to work together to accomplish this. I will do my part if you will do yours.
I can't believe you just posted that. I agree with some of your suggestions but it begs for Chris' final comment..."Since patients are getting skeleton crew-care, are they being charged skeleton-crew bills?"
If family is expected to turn patients, assist with bedpans and help them to the restroom, run get them ice and drinks, will we see those tasks deducted from the bill? With the hospital charging $8.00 for a 10 cent tylenol, that should result in a $1,000 deduct per day of admission.
Sure family can assist with making the patient comfortable, adjusting pillows, changing the T.V. etc. but what a sad commentary that one of your first priorities upon admission to DRMC is "make sure you have a loved one to monitor your care".
While i think the hospital should urge families to stay with their loved ones, I cannot imagine having separate billing.
Whatever, it is urgent that families be warned about the need to care for their own.
Also, they need to bring their own disinfectants for the bathrooms.
Oh my word!!!!Sounds to me as if family members need to be employed as "temps" if they need to provide care for patients.Things have hit rock bottom and it is sickening to see.Being a retired employee and patient recently(another story)my heart breaks for the conditions at DRMC.
Whatever, it is urgent that families be warned about the need to care for their own.
Also, they need to bring their own disinfectants for the bathrooms.
Absolutely DISGRACEFUL that it has come to this DRMC did have CNA's professionals at "comfort care and assistance"
And I realize that I am shouting but the Brentwood idiots need to here this over the coffee machine:
THE PUBLIC SHOULD NOT BE CLEANING UP BODY FLUIDS IT"S EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. There are things too easy to contract that you don't want that are easy to catch stop doing it , by doing this you are helping band aid problems with lifepoint and you can and will HURT YOURSELF.
Although I sympathize with the 11:29 Sep 12 poster, I have a couple of issues with that post. I am a registered nurse who chose to leave DRMC after many years due to the lack of management within the dept. in which I worked. I recently had a family member admitted to DRMC. Someone from my family stayed with our loved one at all times. Although most of the time we had excellent nurses, we did have to change the linen if we wanted our family member to have a clean bed. I saw the nurses and nursing assistants look at me with the "evil eye" and watch me as I acquired the clean linen. They watched me do this task several times without offering to help. I helped my family member to the bathroom because no one would come after we requested help via the call bell. My family member had an episode of syncope when he was helped up. I then went into the hall and yelled, "I need help!!" Then nurses responded. The nurse then went on to do a lengthy documentation that the episode occurred when the "family helped him up to the bathroom." As a nurse, I understand the importance of thorough documentation to cover yourself; however, did the nurse bother to document that the family helped the pt to the bathroom because none of the nursing staff responded when asked to? I think not!!! I couldn't help but feel that the nurse's documentation was to "lay blame" on the family and say "it wasn't my fault"!! Also in response to the above mentioned poster's comment about family members expecting nurses to "bring ice chips or drinks at record speeds", it is a federal mandated regulation that pts. have a filled water pitcher within reach at all times. When my family member was a pt, I would have been glad to fill the pitcher myself had the ice and water not been in a locked location on one floor we dealt with. The second floor we dealt with did not have the ice and water under lock and key, but I was once again given the "evil eye" when I had to step behind the nurse's station to fill the pitcher myself. And by the way, we did bring our own bathroom disinfectant.
On the above statement, It is federally mandated that pts have a pitcher of water within reach at all times. I posted that comment and I realize there are exceptions....such as when a pt is on fluid restrictions.
It is evident with our high census and lack of staff that poor planning to address an increase in staffing needs occurred. We have no staff to care for the number of beds. And the poor nurses look for direction and their CNO is where? oh yes out of town on vacation again. They are only able to look to Mr. Anderson for leadership and he is about as incapable of assisting with the clinical issues as a fish out of water. Meanwhile, patients sit for hours in the ED because we have no nurses to care for them. The hospital is in complete disarray and know one seems to be in control. How long can this occur before something terrible happens or is it happening already?
Can anyone on the inside tell us is the staffing that bad?
Yes, the staffing is that bad. 8 to 10 medical surgical patients, 7-8 telemetry/stepdown patients, 3 icu patients, and not to mention that the ed has been in major overload having to hold patients due to not having anywhere to put the latest admissions because there are just no more nurses available. Support staff (cna's) are limited as we do not have enough of those either. It makes no difference day or night. We are always working with a "skeleton crew". Floor directors and clinical managers have even had to come in extra to take patients or just help out because the nurses are so overworked. We just can't take care of this many patients alone. So just know this, if you or your loved one is being admitted to the hospital, your nurse is probably taking care of way more patients than what is considered safe or acceptable by most standards.
"And the poor nurses look for direction and their CNO is where? oh yes out of town on vacation again."
Well, if you can't find the CNO maybe you should leave a message with the COO.
Oh wait, if you can't get the COO, go straight to the CEO.
Oh wait, those are all the same person. Maybe you should just leave a message after the tone.
Meditech may not be the greatest, but it truly documents the inaccuracies in this gentleman's statements concerning time frames. Lies cannot be told when orders, verifications, transcriptions, results and electronic signatures are posted within the modules of Meditech.
I'm just saying that if you call out because your relative needs the bedpan or assistance to the bathroom and no one has responded in a timely manner and he or she is about to wet themselves, then by all means help them. We are doing the best we can with what we have to work with. Please understand that those of us that chose the nursing profession did so because we want to help others. We would like nothing better than to be able to spend more time at our patients' bedsides but unfortunately at this time cannot. I understand your frustration and wish you would understand ours.
"Lies cannot be told when orders, verifications, transcriptions, results and electronic signatures are posted within the modules of Meditech. "
WRONG, the system only timestamps when you enter it not when it occurs and the "occurred" time can be changed only leaving a "charted time" which of course will be after the actual time due to having to type it in .
lifepoint is a poor archaic system in no way suitable for ,well , anything, and meditech stinks too.
HMM....maybe where you work, but the part of DRMC that I work in, we utilize MT to the best of its ability. We do our work in realtime and "timestamp" its completion in MT, so then when someone does a DIAL 8 or some patient's family writes a letter to the editor complaining, we are satisfied with the confirmation that we did exactly what we were supposed to. Granted its not great, but we don't sit around and bash it...its time to get over it since its all we have.
With complaints like yours, you would better serve DRMC by getting a job somewhere else, don't you think? Or maybe you are already gone???? Don't you think all that negatively shows adversely when you take care of your patients and interact with physicians and co-workers? I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of your constant bad mood.
must be nice to have time to chart in "real time".
Oh and evidently plenty of people agree with me , meditech is on the way out and Intellivue is coming back (Careviews updated configuration) and it's geared for patient care and med control not primarily financial concerns.
"its time to get over it since its all we have. "
If the USA had done this, as you say the hospital should, We'd still be owned by England.
Wake up and stand up for yourself and your patients.
September 16: Every day and passes the test
Danville Register and Bee
Sunday, September 16, 2007
X-rays are read every day
To the editor:
I read, with some concern, the letter to the editor, “Why ‘skeleton crews?’” (Sept. 12, page A6).
It is obvious to me that the writer of that letter was misinformed about the level of staffing in the Radiology Department at Danville Regional Medical Center and the implications of that for the provision of medical care. Among other concerns, the writer reported having been told that a family member who had had a chest X-ray taken would not be able to get the results of the exam for several days due to reduced staffing over the Labor Day weekend. That is simply incorrect.
I am unable to address the writer’s other concerns, but as a radiologist and a member of Danville Radiologists (the physician group which reads the X-rays at Danville Regional), I am aware of the level of care provided in the Radiology Department.
One or more physician radiologists staff the hospital daily, whether it is a weekday, weekend or a holiday. There is never a day when a radiologist is not available to read X-rays. Generally that occurs within hours, not days of when an exam is performed. If it is known in advance that the reading of the exam will determine management of an emergency condition, the reading can occur within minutes. This level of care was available over the Labor Day weekend and holiday just as on any other day.
For routine exams, the results of the study are first dictated onto a computer system and subsequently transcribed and reviewed, after which a paper result is sent to the floor on which the patient is located. This reporting process in general is complete in less than a day. The results, however, are available sooner, if needed, since the patient’s doctors can access the report on the computer system after it has been transcribed and can even access the dictation in audio form over the telephone as soon as the study has been read by the radiologist. In critical cases, the radiologist will contact the patient’s physician directly, as soon as the exam is interpreted.
The radiologists of Danville Radiologists, along with the hospital staff within the radiology department of Danville Regional, are dedicated to providing accurate and timely results of X-ray exams, and do not compromise that dedication on weekends or holidays.
DOUGLAS R. MAY, M.D.
Danville
YAWN.............Good for you winning the battle to replace Meditech. Did you catch the implementation date of when this will happen? Meditech took over a year to implement and its near the end of 2007. I heard last week its still not decided which computer system we will get and it definately won't begin next year, so that sounds like you have at least 3 more years to embrace MT.
Who has the luxury of charting in real-time? I am usually 2-3 hours after my shift leaving because of taking care of my patients and not worrying about charting.
We keep discussing the staffing, how bad it is, nurses and others leaving and little to replace them. Yet they continue to run good talented people out. I said goodby to good friend yesterday and a committed contributor to a better hospital. I did not need to ask her why she is leaving it was obvious. She felt her skills remained untapped, little support to do what was right and little appreciation for her contributions. As new graduate just a few years ago, I did appreciate her ability and willingness to mentor me. I stayed in Danville because of people like her and now such an influence has been driven to leave.
I don't have 3 years to embrace anything we're outta here.
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