I am home..and not a happy camper. The weather is nice though..83 and breezy. One bright spot in my day so far.
I had more issues at the hospital this morning. I know they are overworked, and I know they are understaffed, and I know it's the weekend BUT...
When someone uses the call button because they need the bedpan, it should not take 20 min to get someone in there to get one.
When someone uses the call button because the heart rate alarm has been going off for 20 min, it should not take someone long to arrive. They have monitors at the desk, I know because I walked out there and looked, and at least 3 of them were showing the alarms going off.
I had to ask for his nurse 3x. First I wanted to know what his potassium rate was from yesterday (its back down to normal) and I wanted to know what the Dr had to say, and I wanted to know if they had really restarted his Entresto last nite (hubby's mind still gets foggy). After I waited 15 min, with no nurse (only male nurse on the floor), I walked out to the desk and asked my questions. And got the answers I needed (they did restart the Entrestro)
Then the heart rate alarm was doing all kinds of crazy things. I found one of the sensors of the plug off (there were 5 plugs and 1 had come out.) I plugged it back in and it went back to normal.,for about 20 min..then started dinging and making all kinds of noises. Hubby says I can't rest with all that noise,,get someone. So I pressed the call button. No response. There is a thing written on the board that says 'our goal is to answer your light within 5 min,,if we don't, call this number'. So I call..no answer...call again..no answer..call a third time..no answer..by this time hubby needed to use the bedpan again. So I went to the desk again,,and said SEND HIS NURSE>>NOW. I was losing my patience quickly. His nurse doesn't come in, but some other CNA does. She gets the bedpan and says press the button when you are done. So he does his business..and we press it. She comes in and takes the bedpan out, but doesn't clean him up? I said you need to clean him, and you need to get someone to help you pull him up in the bed and fix the hoist pad and the absorbent pad as they are up under his bed. She says I will be right back.
I am not lying--I timed it..20 minutes later..noone..I go to the desk again,,and ask to talk to the Charge Nurse. She comes out and I explain everything to her..the not cleaning him..noone coming to pull him up, the heart alarm going off , and not knowing why etc. She says I will find his nurse for you. Not 2 minutes later,,in comes the nurse. He claims he was in another room, which is possible,,but he only had 4 rooms, so only 4 patients..why could he not send someone else if he was busy???
He comes in with another nurse,,she cleans him up, gets another absorbent pad for his leg, since the gauze was getting leaky, and then left to get something else. The male nurse went and got all the supplies to rebandage his leg without being asked by me. Then they got the pads straightened out, and slid him up where he was comfortable. He found a loose adhesive pad on one of the leads going to the monitor for the heart rate, and changed it, so the monitor settled back down. But for petes, sake..was all of my having to complain necessary to get things done that should have been done? And noone came in to check on him for almost 2 hours prior to that!
Hubby gets upset when I complain,,this morning he got mad at me. I said you won't say anything to them, so if Summer and I, don't get mad at us because we have legitimate complaints about the care you are receiving. If he wasn't on 'high level' care unit, it would be understandable,,but he is! Then hubby tells me that last nite he needed to use the bedpan, and he waited 40 minutes???? I said huh? He said the charge nurse finally came in and took care of it because there was noone else. So back out I went and found the charge nurse for today, and had her add that to my list of complaints. I'm sorry, but overworked, and understaffed or not..some things cannot be let go like that.
I came home so upset that my stomach hurt, and I have a heck of a headache..
Oh..and they brought him his lunch. A cheeseburger with no lettuce or tomato, ketchup, which for 3 days they said he couldn't have, strawberry yogurt, a coke, and Ensure. I said to the lady, take that Ensure off the tray and don't bring it again. She says I have to, the Dr ordered it..here we go again..he told me he did not order it, that dietary did. I said listen..I don't care who ordered it. We are not having him drink it since it has so much potassium in it. We do not want his potassium rate going up again. So either don't bring it, or I will just toss it in the trash (which I hate to do cause it's so expensive). She just looked at me,,picked it up and took it away,,lol. I am sure they are all going to be calling me a *itch..but I have learned if you don't speak up and complain,,noone is going to listen and nothing is going to get fixed. I am also reporting all of this to the Patient Advocate on Monday as they are off on the weekend from what I was told. I have all the notes and names in my phone, so I will have it ready.
Probably won't hear about rehab till Monday either, but the Dr didn't mention discharge at all for a change. He also said that leg should be healed in another week,,so that's one good thing!
Thank you all for letting me vent. If you start reading , and aren't interested, feel free to stop at any time..lol
I am off to take some excedrin and lay down with a cold cloth over my eyes for half an hour.
Have a nice afternoon everyone (and boy am I glad I mowed this morning, no way could I have done it now!), lol!