My mother is 85 with COPD, dementia, and a few other medical conditions I don’t have time to list. In the last year her mobility went from walking with the assistance of a walker to nothing, and she has been in and out of the hospital half a dozen to a dozen times. These most recent trips have shown that hospitals are no longer doing their job.
What is the job of a hospital? It is to get people well. A couple days before Christmas my mother went into the hospital because of a severe UTI at her age and ability is added to the already bad mobility and mental issues. What did the hospital do? They sent in PT and OT to get her physically ready to go home. Soon after she was sent home with IV antibiotics and well wishes.
The end result is my mother is now back in the hospital in more serious condition. The hospital didn’t do their job. The doctors broke their oath of first doing no harm. They did nothing to clear the infection in the hospital. They did the bare minimum to get someone ready to go home and sent them home before they were ready.
On this hospital trip it is either a pattern that can continue or can end. If the hospital is unable or unwilling to get the infection clear before beginning the physical rehab then they need to be upfront that they are incapable of doing their job. A hospital is not a pass through for people to get well enough to be shipped out. The priority should be getting people better, not getting them out of their whether to a rehab facility or to home.
Now there is talk of this new stay being a short one and her being sent home before even a diagnoses is rendered. She has internal bleeding and the CT scan showed nothing and now they have to do more invasive tests and the talk is they want to do it as an outpatient procedure. This is not how things should work. There should be a focus on the patient and getting them well, and if that isn’t a possibility then the doctors need to have an honest and open conversation with us to discuss end of life options.
What the hospital is doing now is ridiculous. They are taking in a patient and acting like a quick turnout is what is best for everyone. If the hospital is in full blown triage mode it makes since to not want to use a bed for an 85 year old with COPD and a litany of other health issues, but as far as I know the hospital isn’t at capacity.
I am hoping for a better outcome this time. The one thing I want is for my mother to live out the rest of her life in comfort. If the hospital can’t treat her anymore then we need to know that and options to move forward. Otherwise she will be right back in the hospital and the pattern will repeat again.
David Huzzard Writes 