March 12, 2008 Visit

 

On Wednesday, March 12, I had to bring my mother into quick care at the doctors office. She was having medical problems that were getting worse, and it was time to see a doctor.

We went to quick care, and they took one look at her and told her that she needed to go to the emergency room. I wanted her to go to Edward Hospital, but she insisted on going to St. Joe’s. That‘s when the nightmare began.

We arrived at the E.R. at 10:30am. We checked in and only had to wait about 10 minutes before we were taken back to the ER. I thought that maybe things had changed. Maybe they might take good care of my mother. Stupid me!

The whole experience in the ER consisted of waiting. Wait for the doctor. Wait for the nurse. Wait for everything. We usually had to wait an hour and a half between seeing any kind of medical personnel. We saw the nurse, and then had to wait an hour and a half to see the doctor. Then another hour and a half to see someone to take her for tests.

She was thirsty, so we asked the nurse for some water. About an hour after that I had to leave to take care of things at home. On my way out, I stopped at the nurse’s station and told them that my mother had been waiting an hour for water. I also told them that she was hungry and wanted some food.

When I came back, I saw that there wasn’t a food tray, so I asked her if they had brought her any food. She said that they didn’t bring her any food, but they did bring her some water about half an hour after I left. That was an hour and a half for a lousy glass of water! And they never did bring her any food!

There was another incident where she had to wait unnecessarily. She had to go to the bathroom, something she hadn’t been doing too much of. We knew she would need help, so we pressed the nurses call button. A couple of minutes later the nurse came over the intercom and asked what she needed. She told her that she had to go to the bathroom and she needed help. The nurse told her that someone would be right there. Well, someone did show up, ten minutes later. And she was some sort of tech, not a nurse.

We told her that mom had trouble breathing when she stood up, and had trouble walking, and could only walk a couple of feet. That didn’t matter. She had her stand up, and we both walked with her across the hall to the bathroom.

The tech got her onto the toilet and told her to pull the call cord when she was done and somebody would help her back to her room. I had a pretty good view of that bathroom from my mom’s ER room while I was pacing the floor.

Every time I saw someone helped into that bathroom, the nurse or aid that helped them waited outside of the bathroom and helped them back to wherever they came from. The only exception was when the “helper” went into the bathroom with the patient.

But not my mom. “ Pull the cord when you’re done and someone will come to help you to your room.” What a bunch of B. S.!

My mother pulled the cord and waited. Then she waited some more. After ten minutes, she got up and was able to get the door open, and that was about it. I saw her standing in front of the toilet hanging onto the grab bar. She was completely out of breath, shaking, and she managed to tell me to get some help. That kind of upset me, so I yelled “we need some help in here!” I did not yell it at the top of my lungs, but I didn’t use my normal talking voice either.

A C.N.A. came by and helped me get her across the hall and into her bed; she barely made it. When we got her into bed, she started shaking a lot. Her whole body shook. The C.N.A. got her all hooked up to the monitors and left. I don’t know if the CNA grabbed a nurse, or a nurse came down the hall and saw the state she was in, (her room was at the T intersection of two halls), but the nurse came in there pretty quickly.

The nurse hooked my mom up to oxygen and talked softly to her to get her calmed down.

Mom was a wreck during this. Her whole body shook hard for a good fifteen minutes. She had difficulty breathing, and could barely talk. All she could say was that she didn’t know what was going on. During all this she had a look of terror on her face and she was crying.

After this is when she got a little more attention. The nurse came in approximately a half hour later and gave her a shot in her stomach, telling her that it was a blood thinner. Approximately an hour after the shot, someone came in and drew some blood, which they had been doing every four hours.

I finally had to leave. I had to take care of things at home, and I had to take care of myself just a little bit.

Mom called me at 8:30 and said that they finally brought her up to a room. That makes ten hours that she had to wait for a room!

Finally, a room!

Mom got a room; finally she was able to get off that gurney that was hurting her back.

A nurse came back to get her information. She was asking her stuff that she had answered a few times that day. While the nurse was getting the information, a therapist came by to give her breathing therapy.

This was a good thing, because the doctor in the E. R. wanted her to have that therapy, and the nurse kept asking if she had had her therapy yet.

Well, the nurse asking the questions for the umpteenth time thought that her questions were more important than the breathing therapy, and she made the therapists leave. The therapist never did come back to give mom the therapy.

On Thursday she had some tests, and didn’t get to see a doctor until 6:00 PM. That’s when her pulmonary doctor, Doctor Walsh, came to see her. He told us that all her tests were clear, and he couldn’t find anything wrong. He told us that doctor Write, who was standing in for her primary doctor, wanted to release her Thursday morning. I couldn’t believe that! Then Doctor Walsh said he was going to release her and send her home.

That’s when I put my foot down. I told him that she couldn’t even walk without somebody helping her. I told him that she could only make it halfway to the bathroom and she would be out of breath. I told him no way when she ready to go home.

I convinced him to keep her in the hospital. He said that he would have some tests done on her that night and Friday, and he would probably send her home Friday afternoon. I think maybe doctor Walsh has gone over to the dark side.

We did manage to get a little lucky. The doctor that was filling in for doctor Write, that was filling in for her primary care Physician, saw my mother and I trying to walk in the hallway Friday morning, and followed us to her room and her bed.

I guess she saw how weak and wobbly mother was, and told us she would not release her. She said that she was ordering physical therapy for her for that afternoon and Saturday morning. She told my mother that if she did well with the physical therapy, she could go home Saturday afternoon. She also said that she was ordering a visiting therapist to come to the house a couple of times a week to help her get her strength back. Saturday came, and mom was doing better. She seemed a little stronger, and was sleeping less, but she still wasn’t eating like she should. She was able to get up and walk the 15ft. to the bathroom without any help. The doctor that was filling in came by to see how she was doing. Mom convinced her that she was ready to go home, and promised to “be a good girl” and follow the doctors instructions. Naturally, my mother was lying.

The doctor released her, and ordered transportation to bring her downstairs. This was at 10:00 AM. They did not show up until 2:00 PM! Dear old mother was fuming; she said she was going to get up and walk out. Like that was going to happen.

She finally made it home; still weak and a little sick. She could barely get out of bed and start to walk when she would get out of breath. She’s was not eating right, although she was eating better than when she was in the hospital.

She was visited at home by a nurse for evaluation for her physical therapy. The nurse ordered occupational and physical therapy for her. The nurse said she could arrange for someone to come in and do light cleaning, but mom said no, she has someone that comes in and cleans every two weeks.

The nurse wanted to have someone come in and help mom get a shower, but she said no, she has the shower all fixed up with grab bars and a seat and that she could shower herself. What she did not tell the nurse was that the shower was two flights of stairs down, and she could only barely make it down the first flight.

The nurse said she could also arrange for food to be brought in; naturally she said “my son will do it”.

The main reason mom wanted to get out of the hospital is because the treatment was so bad. They really treated her horribly, as I have stated before. They were slow to get the food in, and they would take all day to take the food tray out. When I would leave in the evening, the breakfast food tray would still be in the room. I would visit her in the morning, come home to let the dogs out and get something to eat, and go back in the afternoon and stay until around 6:00 PM. On the Friday that I was there, the nurse never came into the room. The nurses aides came in every now and then, but not the nurse.

The treatment was so bad there that she promised me that the next time that she needed to go to the hospital, she would go to Edward hospital. She also told some of her friends the same thing. I don’t think she was lying this time. I know if she would have gone to Edward in the first place, she would have been better taking care of. And she would have gladly stayed in there until she was fully recovered and ready to go home. I guess she’s had enough lousy treatment for one lifetime.

Pulmonary Honors

Pulmonary Honors

In a previous post titled “Elite Honor”, I wrote about an article in the local paper that was about St. Joe’s getting an award from HealthGrades. The newspaper article was dated 1/31/08.

On 2/1/08, the paper re-ran the article, only it added on other awards for 2008. It listed 8 awards in the pulmonary field, and 1 in the cardiac field.

I have a little bit of experience with their pulmonary services.

I have a family member that has COPD, and attended their pulmonary rehab program. The program mostly consisted of exercises in their workout room. 2 days a week were for pulmonary patients, and the other 3 days were reserved for cardiac patients. They have a decent selection of equipment that can be used.

I got involved because their program allowed for a patient and a family member to exercise.

When we started, everyone who exercised had their blood pressure and oxygen level checked before, during, and after exercising. The charge for this was $5 for a patient and $3 for a family member per visit. A pretty good deal. It cost me $6 a week, usually. Very reasonable and economical. Keep in mind that 99% of the people attending were on a fixed income, and it wasn’t covered under insurance.

Then, a couple of years ago, they decided to raise their prices. The reason for the price increase was “..to better serve you.” Yep, to better serve us, the people on fixed incomes.

The price went from $5 for a patient and $3 for a family member per visit, to $30 a month for a patient and $20 a month for a family member. It didn’t matter if you went there 1 day a month or every day, the cost was still $30 and $20.

And, to serve us better, the blood pressure and oxygen check went from 3 times per visit, to once before you started, if you were lucky.

I paid the $20 a month, then they raised me to $30 a month. When I finally quit going, they were charging me $60 a month.

Myself and my family member were being charged for months after we had quit. We would go up there to get it straightened out, they would apologize and tell us that everything was taken care of, and the next month it would start all over again.

All this from a hospital that got all kinds of awards for pulmonary services. How low are we going to let our standards go?

Elite Honor?

In a 1/31/08 article, our local paper (the Joliet Herald News), ran an article titled “Provena Earns Elite Honor”.

It’s an article about them receiving HealthGrades 2008 Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence. Supposedly the hospital was named among the nation’s top 5 percent of hospitals nationally for clinical excellence.

Jeffrey Brickman, a senior VP, said that the whole staff is “…dedicated to bringing the best technology and state of the art care to the community.” And that they were “intently focused” on providing the county with “…the highest quality care and the best patient outcomes.”

The article goes on about “…improving patient outcomes at a greater rate in more procedures and diagnoses than all other hospitals.” They also state that the hospital can consistently deliver top-notch medical care over a range of procedures.

Clinical excellence. Best technology. State of the art care. Highest quality care. Best patient outcomes. Top-notch medical care. A lot of nice words. If only they were true.

Is it the best technology when you have heart monitors without any kind of memory?

Is it state of the art, high quality care when the staff, including the head nurse, doesn’t know where a patient is? Or how about not even being able to change out a 9 volt battery in a heart monitor every day?

Is it top-notch medical care when you have to wait an hour and a half for a room, even when your doctor calls ahead and makes arrangements? And while you sit waiting, 3 other people come in after you and get taken up to a room right away? Then, you have to sit in that room for half an hour before the nurse, who happens to be employee of the month, comes by to get you settled in. What about the doctor wanting you to have an IV started at 4, and the nurses don’t get it going until 9? Is that top notch care?

Is it clinical excellence when a staff cardiologist tells you “We don’t know what the problem is, but if it happens again we’ll put in a pace maker.”?

The answer to all the above questions is a resounding NO!

Cardiac Care Honor?

On 1/15/08,our local paper, the Joliet Herald News, ran an article titled “Cardiac care earns honor for St. Joe’s”.

The honor was Blue Cross and Blue Shield naming St. Joe’s a Blue Distinction Center for Cardiac Care. This is a program that “…creates an unprecedented level of health care transparency for consumers and providers. Driven by quality, collaboration and affordability…” and “… centers which offer the best practices and standards of care…”

That doesn’t say too much about Blue Cross and Blue Shield if they’re giving an award to St. Joe’s

“…unprecedented level…” is right, if they’re talking about poor health care. “Driven by quality…” huh? Is that driven by providing poor quality?

It also talks about affordability. Really? If St. Joe’s is so affordable, why do they charge two and a half (2.5) times as much for a lipid test than Lab Corp across the street? They bought out Glenwood Imaging, and the first thing they did was raise the prices. They raised the price of a certain ultrasound by $700.00. And to this day nobody has been able to tell me why. Is that affordable?

Jeffrey Brickman, senior VP and regional CEO for the Provena Southwest Suburban Region, said “Our cardiac services have met stringent requirements set by Blue Cross Blue Shield, and our cardiac care has proven reliability in delivering quality cardiac care and better overall outcomes for cardiac patients.”

Brickman says that their “…cardiac care has proven reliability in delivering quality cardiac care and better overall outcomes for cardiac patients.” Quality care? What kind of quality? The kind of care you ger when you don’t change out the 9 volt batteries in a heart monitor when they’re supposed to be changed out every 24 hours?

The kind of quality care you get when the same heart monitors don’t have a memory? If medical staff isn’t there when you have a problem, they can’t go back and check the monitor to see what happened.

What kind of “quality care” can you expect from people that don’t know the difference between a hot flash and Super Ventricular Tachacardia?

Dr. Brian Foy, medical director of cardiac surgery at St. Joe’s, said “…we take quality very seriously.” He talks about “…our high quality of care…” and being “…proud to provide such a high standard of care for our patients.”

They take quality seriously? A “…high standard of care…”? You press the call button for a nurse, and 5 minutes later you have to stand in the hallway yelling help, only to have a CAN come meandering in and say “It’s only a hot flash.”, and that’s a high standard? The head nurse tells you “We can’t find your mother.”, and none of the staff knows where she is. What does that say about quality standards?

It turns out that “…the process used to select Blue Distinction Centers is based on clinical data supplied by hospitals.

Data supplied by the hospital? In other words, St. Joe’s sent them data saying St. Joe’s is doing a good job. No wonder they got an award. They could be standing around all day with their thumbs up their butts, and tell BC&BS that they’re doing a good job.

“’ Hey, BC&BS, I’m doing an excellent job. I more that qualify for your award!’ Pssst, hand me another cold one, heh heh heh.”

The article ended by Brickman saying “…we will continue to focus on providing the highest quality of care and best outcomes for out patients.”

Brickman says that they’ll “…continue to focus on providing the highest quality of care and best outcomes for out patients.” Continue? Don’t you have to start before you can continue? If they continue doing what they’re doing, well, God help us all.

St. Joe’s Medical Center – Preface

There are 2 hospitals in the Joliet area at this time: Silver Cross Hospital on the east side of Joliet, and Provena St. Joseph Medical Center on the west side.

Provena St. Joseph Medical Center is also known as St. Joe’s, St. Joe’s Hospital, St. Joe’s Misdiagnosis Center and Voodoo Palace, and Oh My God No!, among other things.

Edward Hospital has wanted to build a hospital in Plainfield, and St. Joe’s is against it. They are concerned that all of the patients with money and good insurance will go there, leaving them with the poor and uninsured to care for, resulting in loss of income. They are worried that they won’t have enough money to stay in business.