I’ve been walking the earth for a half a century, so I’m sure I’ve picked up a bit along the way. I know the Gettysburg Address by heart. I can recite all the presidents. I can taste the difference between Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, and I’m fairly certain I can tell you the starting lineup from the 1976 Cincinnati Reds. But if you ask me if I’m worried about Ebola, if our hospital is ready or if our nurses and staff are up to the challenge, chances are you will probably hear me say this:
“Hell if I know.”
I have been practicing emergency medicine for more than 20 years and I’ve seen close to 100,000 patients. I’ve written a few books, published some papers, lectured a bunch of times, pissed off about 10,000 soccer moms when I wrote an article telling them their kids weren’t playing the pros. I once even testified in front of a congressional sub-committee on hospital disaster preparedness. I’m still beating myself for at least not stealing a pen, but it was part of my duty as the physician director of mass casualty preparedness for our emergency department.
So you would think if anyone in the emergency department trenches would be versed as to how this Ebola scare will unfold, if it will spread, what to expect, how to diagnose, screen, protect and treat, then I suppose it would be me.
More @ IN
There was a time when being a doctor or a nurse was a "calling" as opposed to "just a job," so no question they would show up. I think most would show up today if they believed they were given all the available protection possible for their safety, too. So far, that is not happening.
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent article, and fits with my 30 years watching from the sidelines of hospital administration. Overcrowding in ERs and big delays in receiving treatment have not subsided substantially - in defense of the housekeepers, it is hard to get a lot of patients discharged by their docs in the morning, even though their hospital care was over. So, people sat in their rooms waiting and waiting. Then when the rooms were really needed in the late afternoon or evening, the rooms were still not ready for the reasons cited in the article. Even bigger problems in hospitals without enough private rooms. I remember hearing about nurses standing at the elevators refusing to let patients come onto their floor from the ER due to staffing problems. The comments on this article are worth reading, too. Get your Gatorade supply for hydration.
Thanks for the pointers.
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Get your Gatorade supply for hydration.
:)
As a former patient care technician that used to work in a hospital, all I can say is that what the doctor said is completely true, but the main reason that it takes so long for rooms to be cleaned and sanitized is because the hospitals simply will not hire the cleaning staff that is required to keep up with bed demand. The last house keeper that was on my wing before I left had a total of SIX wings of 30 beds each under her sole responsibility.
ReplyDeleteEven though you never see it published, a hospitals housekeeping staff has the highest "turnover" of all types of staffing it requires to run a safe and orderly hospital.
Sioux really nailed it with, “There was a time when being a doctor or a nurse was a "calling" as opposed to "just a job,"” At one time teacher were the same before they switched from teaching to indoctrinating but that is a different comment. To the majority of our health care workers it is now just a job. I am afraid if Ebola begins to spread our healthcare system will collapse. The very design of modern ERs will spread the disease. We crowd people in a room make them wait with each other and only take the ones in obvious distress. The rest are left to transmit diseases between each other. The staff unless they are always clothed in full biohazard suits they will become infected. Even if the staff are clothed in biohazard suits they must be properly removed every time or someone will become infected. Maintaining that level of quality control in a hospital work environment is impossible.
ReplyDeleteThe staff will quick learn the only way not to become infected is not to show up at work. Once they realize that fact and see their fellow employees become infected how long will they continue to show up.
Badger
“There was a time when being a doctor or a nurse was a "calling" as opposed to "just a job,"” At one time teacher were the same before they switched from teaching to indoctrinating but that is a different comment.
DeleteExactly. All my father wanted on his tombstone was "A Country Doctor". How far we have fallen. Doctors and lawyers didn't advertise before also, because it was considered in bad taste. Imagine that now.